Dual Hearts: Two Masters Are Better Than One
by Harry Scotter
Summary: Where it all begins. Scott and Leahna are friends living on the beach, until one night a dream, a storm and an encounter leads to the destruction of their world. With their Keyblades and new friends, will the two ever find home again?
1. Prologue: Death in a Dream

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Square Enix or Final Fantasy that this story and characters are associated with. If I was, I would be as cool as Walt Disney's frozen head. _

The waves swept up the beach as the tide came in, soaking water through the clothes of a young man that was lying on the beach. It was at this point that Scott woke up.

Scott was a fairly average boy for his age, having curly short brown hair and dark, chocolate brown eyes. He was wearing a black shirt with long white sleeves, where the black shirt sleeves ended just above his elbow, with red trim in between. He also had red trim around his black shirt collar and the hem around his waist. He wore a black belt, with blue denim slouch jeans, and black, red and white sneakers. He appeared slim, but he had a muscular athletic build that was modestly hidden underneath his loose clothing.

Feeling the cold of the ocean waves, he sat up and looked around him groggily, wondering how he had got there. He noticed his hands were covered in wet sand and tried to brush it off, but it only stuck to him more. Ignoring this for the moment, Scott saw out the corner of his eye the tide was pulling back out, much further down the beach than it should have, and looked out towards the ocean.

The water had been sucked out towards a giant typhoon that was forming off the beach in the middle of the sea. Scott looked at it in confusion and wonder as in the starry sky above it, stars began to fall literally out of the sky, their trails burning and glittering down into the horizon. Something began to rise out of the murky depths of the middle of the typhoon, something dark and hidden beneath the waves, and suddenly a wave grew out from the water towards the beach, headed for where Scott was standing.

Scott turned around and began to run instinctively as the wave turned into a huge tidal wave, but he could see in the moonlight on the sand in front of him the shadow of the wave eclipsing his own. He knew it was already too late. Hearing the churning of the ocean water catching up to him, before he knew it, the lip of the tidal wave crashed down over him and swept him into a fierce tide.

Scott struggled and tried to swim against the riptide, opening his eyes underwater, now swimming in the direction he had been running. But it was no use, the current was pulling him backwards faster than he could swim, and he was pushed backwards, tumbling through the water, seeing only enough to understand he was being pulled back into the darkness of the typhoon he had seen. As he plummeted down into the dark depths, fighting the reflex in his lungs to breathe, he saw above him the moon above him in the starless sky…

A moon shaped like a heart…

The current pulled him straight downwards headfirst, deeper, deeper into the dark. Scott felt like he was drowning, opening his eyes as the monster current finally slowed, his lungs burning as he could no longer hold in his breath. His breathed in, and felt surprised that he could actually breathe in. He felt air moving through his lungs instead of water, and breathed in another breath to be sure. He breathed in another breath as his body floated gently back upright, feeling his feet touching the bottom.

Suddenly the dark ocean floor lit up underneath him, the inky blackness beneath his feet disappearing around him. The light was so bright Scott had to shut his eyes and put a hand over his face to allow his eyes to adjust to it. When they did, he could see a picture beneath him… it looked like a giant stain-glass mirror. It was of him, a girl he knew, and some strange characters he had never seen before.

Scott felt the aquatic environment around him disappear, and suddenly a flock of birds flew out of the darkness that was fading around him, making him realize he was no longer underwater. A strange kind of mist surrounded the area around the stain-glass floor, so he couldn't see where he was. He walked to the edge of the stain-glass floor he was standing on and almost lost his balance; the edge teetered off into a dark unknown abyss before him. Where was he?

_Don't be afraid, _said a voice, and Scott almost lost his balance again. He looked around to see who it was, but he could see no-one. The voice seemed to be coming from everywhere. Before he could speak, it spoke again. _Ahead of you is a journey. You must take the first step. Just keep walking. Towards the light. No matter how deep the darkness is… _

At the mention of darkness, some shadows appeared on the floor. Then suddenly the shadows started rising up, growing heads and arms as they crawled up out of the floor. Tiny, beady amber eyes blinked on their faces, looking towards him. Scott stepped towards the center in the middle of the creatures, not wanting to loose his balance a third time, wondering what they were. The little creatures suddenly jumped towards him, swiping their little claws towards him. Scott shielded his arms in front of him to protect himself, bracing for the worst…

There was a bright light, and Scott felt his right hand grip something. He opened his eyes and saw in his hand, as he lifted it up to look at it, a large blade. It was shaped like a key, with a crown shape at the point of the key where the key would be inserted into a lock, and at the end of the key where the handle was a keychain was attached by a chain, in the shape of a circle with two smaller circles on the top in the shape of ears. Scott turned his attention away from the sword and looked at the shadow creatures, which had been knocked back by his blade. They seemed partially stunned, and were retaliating for another attack. As they came for him, Scott swung at them with the key one by one, shattering their shadowy forms into oblivion.

Scott had no time to be awed by the power of his new weapon, as a door appeared behind him. Scott listened for the voice, but it was gone. He stepped towards the door and opened it, stepping into the light on the other side.

He was back on the beach where he had first woken up. But it was sunset now, and the door behind him was gone. Scott looked up the beach, and saw a scene he didn't expect to see his entire life. He could not believe his eyes.

The girl he had seen in the stain-glass window… for some reason, he could not remember her name. And even weirder, he couldn't remember what she looked like. But he recognized her as being someone close to his heart. This girl was now laying down on the sand, eyes closed, with the sword that looked like a key in her right hand. The figure above her looked gravely down upon her as Scott ran over to her side.

He shook her, at a loss for words. She wasn't moving. Wasn't breathing. She was cold, lifeless… dead. Scott looked angrily up at the person who was standing above her, ready to demand answers… when the cloaked figure lifted off his hood. He gasped in shock.

It was… himself. Him. Another Scott.

A mirror image.

The mirror Scott looked at him coldly, his facial expression stoic. Scott clutched the girl in his arms protectively as he watched his look-alike raise his own bladed key weapon from his cloak.

The world started to shake around him like an earthquake, and suddenly a sandstorm erupted around them as the sand rose like a living curtain around them. Trees, water, rock… everything was being sucked up into the sky into some kind of vortex into a now shadowy sky. Scott watched hopelessly as the ground crumbled away around them, watching as the world fell apart before his eyes. His clone did not move or show any expression to this.

Then, and without any warning, his other self raised his weapon and thrust the tip of it into his own chest.

Scott woke up in a cold sweat, sitting up in bed. It took him a moment to realize he had been having a dream, but all of it had felt so real. He felt like he had been stabbed, and even though it hadn't truly been him, having watched his look-alike stab himself was real enough. He lifted up his shirt to make sure, but it was clean. He was being silly. It was all a dream, after all.

A crash of thunder sounded outside, alerting him that there was a storm brewing outside. The wind crashed up against the window; it sounded like all hell was breaking loose. Scott looked out the window, and in between the flashes of lighting, he thought he could see something moving outside in the rain on the beach. He decided to quickly get dressed to investigate; something was going on and he was going to find out. Grabbing his jacket, he left his room and walked quickly down the hallway, hoping to find out what was going on.


	2. Chapter 1: The Message Wall

Scott walked quickly down the hallway, hearing the wind rattle the window panes violently. He walked down the stairs of his house and opened the door to be greeted by the cold squall, huddling his jacket closer to his body. He stepped outside and after locking the door behind him, ran up the beach in the pouring rain towards a house not too far away from his.

He stepped up the front door and just before he was about to knock, the door opened. "Scott?" the voice said in surprise, huddling her jacket in reaction to the cold rain that blew in past him. "Was that you I saw moving around outside?"

The girl's name was Leahna. Her friends usually called her Larnie. She was heaps shorter than Scott and had an average build for a girl her age. She usually had green eyes, but whenever Scott looked into them they always seemed to slightly change in color by a trick of the light. At the moment she had light brown hair, as sometimes she liked to color it different shades of brown, sometimes black. She was wearing her jacket, with her favorite top with a hood underneath, gray jeans and black Converse shoes.

She and Scott were good friends and had lived in their own houses on the beach, like they had always dreamed of doing when they had first met. They hung out with each other whenever they weren't doing anything on the beach or in their houses, and even though they had different opinions about things which sometimes led to arguments, whenever there was something wrong they always visited each other to share their problems. This was one of those times.

Scott shook his head. "Not me. But I saw it two. Larnie… you better come see this."

Leahna nodded as she closed the door behind her and locked it, then stepped past Scott towards the movements in the distance that she and Scott could barely make out though the rain and lightning. Scott followed after her, scanning the dark as they turned their torches on.

"Did you get woken up by the storm?" Scott asked, wondering why Leahna was awake at this time late at night when everyone was usually asleep.

"Not really." Leahna answered. "I woke up from this weird dream… I was on the beach and I got pulled underwater by this wave. Then the scene changed and I was on this giant stain-glass window. I was attacked by these shadows and then this sword shaped like a key appeared in my hand, so I used it to fight them."

Scott stopped in his tracks when he heard Leahna say this. "And the stars in the sky on the beach were falling, right?"

"Erm yeah…" Leahna said. "How did you know that?"

"For one, I had the exact same dream. But we'll talk about that later." Scott told her, having a short flashback about the dead girl and his look-alike stabbing himself in the chest. "Two… it's happening. Look."

Scott looked up towards the sky with Leahna, and sure enough through gaps in the storm clouds, the stars where trailing out of the sky like slow shooting stars, leaving the sky empty and hollow of nothing except the storm clouds themselves.

"How does something like that happen!?" Leahna wondered incredulously.

"I bet he knows." Scott said, spotting the mysterious figure moving around in the dark again, and started running after him.

"What makes you say that?" Leahna called after him.

"He's the only one who's not looking up into the sky in surprise." Scott called back, looking at the people who were coming out of their homes to look at storm. Leahna looked at them for a moment, then ran to join up with him. They chased after the figure who was heading for the secret beach.

Scott and Leahna called a hidden part of the beach the secret beach. It separated from the main beach by rocks, hidden around a corner; but the rocks only went a short way down the coast and opened up to soft sand and trees again. Only Scott, Leahna and a few of their closest friends knew about the beach, and those that had been there had left their marks and tags in chalk and paint on the huge rock wall on the secret side of the beach. They nicknamed this rock wall the 'message wall'.

Scott and Leahna rounded the corner towards the beach and over the rocks, being careful to go as fast as they could without slipping on the wet rocks caused by the rain and the ravaging waves smashing against them from the storm. They didn't have to get very far, as the figure was standing around the corner from them hidden from view, staring at the message wall. Then suddenly, there was a light from the message wall, and a rock was highlighted in the same light, the one Scott remembered was about the same shape and size as the door. Scott remembered that he and Leahna had always agreed the rock looked so much like a door that they joked about where it led to, like the mines of Moria, or the Land of Narnia, but they could never open or even move it. In the middle of a door, another shape appeared traced in the same light – the shape of a keyhole. The figure reached his hand towards it and touched it.

"Hey, what are you doing to our wall?" Scott called out to the figure, revealing their presence. The figure turned towards them, clearly showing he or she was wearing a brown cloak with a hood, with the hood concealing their face and the cloak their body. The cloak also hid the hands, so whomever it was now paused with their sleeve outstretched towards the rock. The hooded stranger lowered the sleeve and turned to them.

"_This world is connected._" a man's voice said in a deep, ominous tone.

"What?" Leahna called out in surprise.

"_Tied, to the darkness…_" he spoke mysteriously again.

"You know about the stars, don't you?" Scott demanded. "What's going on? What do you know about the wall that we don't?"

"_It is already too late…_" the deep voice simply answered, and raised his arms to the sky. As he did, shadows appeared on the ground, shadows that were hauntingly familiar to both Scott and Leahna. The cloaked man had summoned them.

"What the...!?" Scott trailed off in a mixture of confusion and horror, as they both watched the shadow creatures rise from their pools of darkness. This either had to be some kind of really weird dream he was having again, or their friends had really gone to some trouble to play a random trick on them. The creatures quickly rose up and suddenly attacked, slashing their claws towards them. _This had to be for real_, Scott realized in thought. _If it was anything else, the creatures would have stopped by now, and it feels too real to be a dream..._ Scott stepped back towards Leahna and selflessly absorbed the blows from the first lot of them, allowing them to pile up on top of him in order to take the hit. "Leahna, RUN!" he urged her desperately, trying to give her a chance to escape.

"I'm not running anywhere." Leahna refused. "I don't need rescuing." She tried to hit the creatures latched onto Scott with the torch she had brought with her, but they only just dug their claws into Scott tighter.

Scott felt his strength fading. More shadows jumped out at Leahna and scratched at her, grabbing onto her with their claws. Scott got angry that his effort to get Leahna out of harm's way failed, and lifted his hand up to swat at the closest shadow, when a flash of light appeared in both his and Leahna's hands. The light grew and formed into the shape of something Scott and Leahna almost half-expected, but couldn't believe themselves - a key-shaped sword. They could feel the light weight and grip in their hands.

The shadows let go of them both and retreated from the light shining from the blades, almost if they were afraid of it. Leahna and Scott knew what to do almost instantly; they had little choice as the key weapon was the only weapon they had. Together they moved forward and swung at the shadows with their blades, with some difficulty as they learned how to use the swords while the shadows tried to flatten themselves against the ground to avoid getting hit, destroying the dark creatures one by one until there was nothing left but the sounds of the storm and the ocean.

After the fight, they stopped to catch their breath, both cold and tired from fighting in the heavy rain. Both looked around for the man in the cloak – but he was gone. But the glowing door in the message wall, with a keyhole in its center, was still glowing. Scott looked at the giant key in his hand, wondering if the purpose of the key was to unlock the keyhole in the door. Leahna must have had the exact same though, as she moved towards the door at the same time Scott did. But before either one of them could reach it, it did something they didn't expect.

As they stopped in their tracks and looked on in wonder, with a loud stone tumbling noise, the ancient door slowly swung open.


	3. Chapter 2: The End of Their World

There was a concussive blast through the air, like a bomb exploding, or the vibration of speakers turned up to maximum volume, that Leahna could feel through her body the moment the door swung open. Next to her a few steps away, she noticed out the corner of her eye Scott being pushed backwards through the sand by the gale force of the wind blasting out of the door, raising his key over his face to protect himself. Leahna impulsively did the same, using her key weapon to help shield her eyes from the sand being whipped across the beach like a ferocious sandstorm. The wind became so strong that it felt like the gale force wind of a cyclone, forcibly pushing the two of them away from the rocks of the message wall across the sands of the secret beach. It was then Leahna felt the aftershock of the door opening, seismic tremors shaking through the earth beneath her feet, causing her and Scott to loose their balance and fall over.

As she got up, feeling uneasy as the ground shook violently beneath her, Leahna looked up and froze. In the sky, she could see the wind carrying pieces of wood, branches, and brick spinning through the air. But that wasn't what stopped her. In amongst them she could see a bathtub, a sink, a hot water heater and even a car, all twirling dangerously through the air on an invisible wind. It had to have been a cyclone, and what was even worse, it had hit the homes on the beach. It meant her and Scott's house could have been destroyed. If she and Scott hadn't woken up and left, they would now be in that cyclone, probably injured or even worse.

"C'mon!" Scott yelled, already back on his feet, talking Leahna's hand and trying to pull her to her feet. "Leahna, get up!"

Leahna yanked her hand away from Scott and stood up on her own. The last thing she needed right now was Scott telling her what to do. "I can get up myself. I'm not helpless."

Scott looked a little hurt. "I'm not saying you were. I was only trying to help you up. That cyclone is coming this way, we have to find cover fast. Let's go."

Leahna did not move and looked up in the sky again. She thought about what was happening back at home. "Hmmm. I'm… I'm not so sure." She tried to think. What would her mum want her to do if she was in danger?

"Larnie, please, listen to me." Scott called through the wind. "That cyclone is coming this way. We don't have time to stay here. And here's no way we can possibly go back now."

"Yeah, I know." she said understandingly through the wind to him. "But… I just can't leave my family and friends, they could be hurt." Scott had moved to the beach from far away, so he didn't have any family, and besides Larnie there weren't any friends of his that lived in the neighborhood. But Leahna did have family and close friends living around her. She wasn't sure if Scott could understand how she felt unsure if they were still alive or not.

"Your family and friends are probably safe." Scott reassured her, his eyes meeting hers. "If you made it back there now only to get yourself killed, trying to look for them, how do you think they would feel? Take control of what you can do now, save yourself and worry about them after the storm's passed. We don't have time to argue, we need to take shelter. We've gotta take care of us now."

Leahna thought for a moment longer. She put herself in her mum's shoes and picture what she would say. _Leahna, get to a safe location. Stay there until it's safe. Then call me, and if you can't, be in a place I can find you._ "Yeah, you're right." Leahna finally agreed. Leahna's family and friends meant the world to her. Scott understood that, was trying to put himself in her mother's shoes too, nothing was more important to her mum than the safety and happiness of her child. He just wanted to make sure she was okay so she could get back to her mum.

"Let's go find some cover." she decided. She just hoped her mum and friends would be okay. How would she find them after this storm was over if her house was gone?

Scott breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good. I don't want to have to say to your family and friends why I couldn't have done everything I could, to stop you from walking into that storm, to save your life. You're my friend, I don't want you to die."

Leahna nodded at him. "Yeah, I know you're only trying to be there for me." She lead him towards the trees up the beach. "We should find some shelter from the storm in between those trees."

Suddenly, before they could get to the trees, a black pool appeared in front of them. It swelled with the same darkness as the shadows had come from, but it was much, much bigger. Then from out of it rose a giant shadow; unlike the smaller shadows that had little bug-like antennas, this shadow had tentacle-like Medusa hair that was wrapped around its entire face, except for its glowing amber eyes. It had a muscular upper body, but in the center of its chest was hollow, a hole carved straight through it in the shape of a heart. Its legs were short and disproportionate compared to the rest of its body, and its feet were curled at the toe.

"Who are you!?" Leahna demanded, hoping she could first try to talk her way out of this fight, as the bigger shadow seemed to show some sentient qualities. The shadow raised it's fist and slowly slammed it down towards them, prompting Leahna and Scott to jump out of the way before it came crushing down on the spot they were last standing. Leahna scowled at the shadow. If it wanted a fight, it was going to get one. Nothing was going to stand in her way to get to her family and friends. But how, even with Scott's help, was she going to fight an opponent twice her size?

Scott ran in first, dodging the shadow's slow swipe at him with his hands, and boldly stabbed his weapon into the hole in the monster's chest where the heart shape was, thinking it was its weak spot. But as his blade entered the hole, it seemed to have no effect. The shadow reached a hand down to him to grab him before he _could_ see it coming. It picked him up and lifted him above its head, and with Scott unable to do anything as he couldn't free his key out of the monster's fingers, it brought him down fast and slammed him into the ground.

Leahna wasn't sure what to do. The shadow wasn't like one of the little shadows. How did Scott muster the courage to fight it like that? Leahna didn't feel she was as brave; the shadow was now punching his fist into Scott on the ground repeatedly, she was afraid she was going to get hurt or worse, which her mum wouldn't want her to do. _Wait, what am I thinking?_ She thought. _Scott's getting really badly hurt, and I'm doing nothing. I've got to help him! And if I don't defeat this thing, we won't get to shelter in time before the cyclone hits. I have to get through this if I want to see my loved ones again._

The shadow creature was focusing on Scott too much to care about Leahna, and brought up its fist again to pound him further into the ground. His other hand was unprotected, so Leahna stepped around to try to go unnoticed as she got closer to his hand. She felt the fear rising in her tummy, but she fought against every instinct to run. _Don't be such a coward Larnie! You can do this! Your loved ones are depending on you! I'll save you, Scott! _ Motivated, she ran forward and slashed at the monster's other unprotected hand.

The shadow unexpectedly knelt to its knees, punching its injured hand into the sand from Leahna's blow. Darkness swelled up from beneath the earth and into the monster, as if it were recovering its strength.

"Scott!" Leahna yelled. "Are you okay!?"

Scott stood up slowly and held his chest painfully. "Yeah. Like a million bucks." he said sarcastically, but besides a few bruises he appeared to be okay. Scott was standing closest to the shadow, so as it lowered it's head to the ground to recover, Scott brought up his blade and struck at it's head. Sparks flew out from the impact point where the keyblade hit, and the shadow deeply moaned, as if hurt or in pain. Then it reared up its head and stood upright again, its hand brand new and completely restored.

"Hey! Over here!" Scott yelled at the shadow, trying to get its attention. He strafed around the shadow, causing the beast to turn its back on Leahna. "Now, get it from behind!" Leahna realized what Scott was trying to do. He was trying to draw the shadow's attention from her so she could sneak attack it.

"It's no use, I can't reach its head!" Leahna called over the howling storm above them, which was now booming with the sound of thunder and the flash of lightning.

"You're not that short!" Scott yelled back, evading a palm swipe the giant shadow made as it oddly moved in slow motion.

"No, I mean its weak spot is its hands! Attack them so I can get to its head!" she yelled back at him.

"Why didn't you say so?" Scott shouted back above the pouring rain, and sliced his sword at the shadow as it outstretched his hand towards him. The key cut through the shadow's hand, causing it to buckle over and punch its hand into the sand. Leahna ignored the tremor and spotted her chance, running up towards the creature. With some impressive agility she ran up its arm it was using to balance itself, and once she was on its shoulder, she hacked at the creature's head with her blade, making it bellow in pain again.

Suddenly the creature's free hand came around and grabbed hold of her. "No!" Scott yelled in desperation. Leahna gritted her teeth and smashed at the creature's hands with her keyblade, causing it to drop her. Scott slid through the sand on his backside and moved beneath her in time, catching her awkwardly but enough to brake her sudden fall.

"Are you okay?" Scott asked quickly as she got up out of his lap.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Leahna replied, dusting wet sand off her. "The shadow, it's down. Get to its head!"

Leahna and Scott ran together to strike the shadow a finishing blow, but the monster rose up with its hand rejuvenated, making them miss their opportunity. The shadow raised its hands above it before Leahna and Scott could reach it, gathering a ball of dark energy between it's hands. The ball started to get bigger and bigger, until it stopped. "RUN!" Scott yelled, and the creature threw the ball after them as they retreated, exploding into the sand behind them, the aftershock powerful enough to throw them off their feet and into the sand. Leahna picked herself up and as she did, she noticed the sand had turned black. The dark energy left behind by the ball had caused this, and slowly pools of shadow began to form out of it, creating new smaller shadows, like the ones Scott and Leahna had previously fought. Scott looked at the closest shadow near him, reaching for his key weapon. The shadow was quicker and lunged to attack him with his claws, but before it could reach him, Leahna grasped her weapon, and swung it at the shadow, destroying it.

"Thanks." Scott said gratefully, finally grabbing his blade and getting to his feet.

"Yeah." Leahna said casually, still a little mad at him. "Thank me later when we beat this thing."

They got up and started defeating the smaller shadows together as they had done before, smashing them with their blades one after another. Once they were all gone, they turned to focus on the giant shadow, which was now standing above them and slamming both its fists down towards them in a sneak attack. Leahna leaped out of the way to avoid the attack, looking up to see Scott had managed to do the same. "Now!" Scott said, and together they both counter-attacked the creature's hands, slashing their blades into them as it lifted them up from the ground. The giant shadow buckled to the ground once more, exposing it's head. Leahna and Scott ran forward and stabbed their swords into the monster's face. Finally, it let out a defeated moan and collapsed to the ground, dissolving into wisps of shadow before it finally disappeared.

"We did it!" Scott said exasperatedly.

"Yes." Leahna said breathlessly.

But there was no time for victory. Still on the beach, Leahna felt what must have been an earthquake rip through the ground, tearing sand and earth up into the wind as it was sucked into the sky in some kind of monstrous funnel. She realized it must have been the cyclone, but it was all being sucked up into some kind of strange vortex in the sky… like the one she had seen in her dream. It felt like it was the end of the world, as everything around them – sand, rock, trees, even the ocean – was being pulled up into the vortex. For some sort of stability, she stayed close to Scott and hung onto him as the world seemed to be sucked up around them. Scott did the same, looking bewilderedly around them. This was crazy. _Could a cyclone really do this much damage?_ She felt like she was Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, watching the world be blown away outside her window.

Suddenly the wind intensified, and she felt herself literally being swept off her feet, lifted up into the air of the ground by the cyclone. She yelped in surprise and thought she was going to be blown away along with everything else on the beach, until she felt a familiar, reassuring, firm grasp on her wrist, holding her down.

"You're not going anywhere!" Scott yelled above the wind, stabbing his key sword into the ground to act as some kind of anchor to hold onto. "I've got you!"

"Don't let go!" Leahna scolded him, not sure if she could trust him to hold onto her.

"Trust me!" Scott called back. "Feel my hand? That's solid. I'm not going anywhere. And neither are you. I'm with you." He grunted, holding tightly onto his key sword as the wind lifted him into the air as well. The wet sand beneath them that buried the key's blade, however, was starting to give way and crumble.

The sweaty skin between Leahna's hand and Scott's was starting to make her loose their grip too. The ground was really shaking violently now. Suddenly the key pulled itself up from the sand, and Leahna lost her grip in Scott's, both of them flying up into the air. "Leahna!" Scott called for her out of concern, as he was swept up though the air beside her. Leahna reached out for Scott to try and keep him with her, but as she tumbled through the air up into the vortex, she lost sight of him in the cold darkness. Scared for her life and if she would survive falling from the height she was out now, the beach now far beneath her, the only thing she could keep hold of was her new key sword she clung tightly to.

The last thing she remembered seeing before she blacked out was the gaping vortex that she was heading towards, and the dark sky beyond.


	4. Chapter 3: Showdown in Traverse Town

Leahna woke up. Something warm and sticky was licking her face, but as her eyes fluttered open and adjusted to the light, she couldn't make out what it was at first as it was still in a total blur. But from the sound of a creature panting and breathing hot breath on her face, she could tell it was some kind of dog. "Jacki?" she said in a half-daze, wondering if her fighting shadows with Scott and getting sucked into the sky at the end of the world had all been a dream, and her dog Jacki had somehow found her way into her room. Then her eyes focused.

It was not her little dog she knew and loved. It was a different, strange-looking dog, with orange fur and black ears, with a thin short black tail. The friendly dog tried to jump on her.

"You're not Jacki!" she said in surprise, realizing she was not safely at home in her comfy bed, but sitting up against a stone wall in an alleyway in a place she was not familiar with. After she had gotten over the shock that everything she could remember had not been a dream, and the fact she had landed not only alive but with barely a scratch on her, she stood up and petted the dog, and it nuzzled her. "Where am I? Oh gosh. Do you know where we are?" she asked the dog, kneeling down to look at him.

The dog didn't so much as bark as it looked at her for a moment, before it ran off.

"Hey! Wait! Come back!" she called. But the dog ran out of the alleyway, and out of sight. Now she was alone, she clutched her key weapon tightly and slowly walked out of the alleyway. _Oh damn,_ she thought, _What do I do now? What would my mum want me to do? And where's Scott? He got really badly hurt fighting that giant shadow… I hope he's okay… and alive…_

She snapped out of her thoughts when she came out of the alleyway. Looking at the buildings around her in the dim light of the streetlights, she didn't recognize them from anything she had ever seen before. The whole place was different somehow, she couldn't quite place it. She suddenly had a flashback of her horrifying experience of being whisked up into the sky.

Leahna reached out for Scott to try and keep him with her, but as she tumbled through the air up into the vortex, she lost sight of him in the cold darkness. Scared for her life and if she would survive falling from the height she was out now, the beach now far beneath her, the only thing she could keep hold of was her new key sword she clung tightly to.

The last thing she remembered seeing before she blacked out was the gaping vortex that she was heading towards, and the dark sky beyond.

The vortex thing… it was weird. But as she played the flashback through her mind, the more the thought occurred to her, was it possible that she had been transported into another world? She was more and more convinced by the things and people she saw. She felt lost, and unsure of what to do. Should she go looking for Scott? Would he be blown here from the storm like her, or was he somewhere else? Or should she go find out where she was first? If she put herself in her mum's shoes again, she probably wouldn't want her going to look for him if she wasn't sure if he was there, or even if he was alive. Her mum would probably tell her to go to family and friends. But what should she do I they weren't here? She guessed she would tell her to find the nearest local authority. That way she could find out where she was, and at the same time find out what had happened to Scott if he had landed here too. One thing was clear, she couldn't stay here, it would achieve nothing. With a plan decided, she started wondering around the town, hoping she could find Scott so hopefully he had some idea how they could get home.

Scott woke up. He was lying on his stomach, and put his hand to his head as he felt ringing in his ears. His whole body hurt, and he opened his eyes as he got up, looking where he was.

He was in an alleyway between some tall buildings, next to some kind of waterway running along a wall. He didn't recognize where he was, he definitely wasn't in his home town anymore. From the look of the buildings, it looked like he was in another world. What if he had died from falling from the sky in the storm? Was this some sort of afterlife? He felt alive; in his chest he still felt pain, as if he had broken a rib or something. What had happened to Leahna? Was she okay? He had to find her to find out, and figure out where in the word he was. As he pushed himself to his feet, he saw an orange dog coming around the corner, with his nose to the ground and his little black tail wagging like crazy. As the dog looked up to see him, it bounded over and barked playfully, its little tail wagging so hard it looked like it was going to fall off.

"Hello boy." Scott said hesitantly at the strange dog, before the dog suddenly jumped on him and licked his face happily. Scott laughed. "Haha, okay that's enough. You're friendly aren't you?"

Suddenly the dog did the opposite and got off Scott, lifting his ears as if hearing something away from them in the distance, then started growling. He started barking badly.

"What is it, boy?" Scott asked, wondering if he could see or smell something he couldn't. The orange dog kept barking at the corner it had just come around. "Who's there? Leahna?" Scott called hopefully.

A man stumbled around a corner. Scott thought for a moment. Maybe he was the dog's master? "Hey? Is this your d…"

Suddenly the man fell to the ground. Then something amazing happened. His body faded away into the shadows, and a light remained where his heart had once been. Scott stared on in disbelief. The heart then started forming until it became a familiar shape.

"It's the creatures from the beach!" Scott exclaimed to the dog, clutching his keyblade tighter in his hands and brought it out in front of him defensively. The dog barked in confirmation at the beings it had sensed. More shadows started appearing out of the ground and the walls around them.

"Run, boy, run! Get out of here!" Scott told the dog, as one shadow attacked, prompting Scott to slice his key sword into it and destroying it.

The dog kept barking, looking at Scott and waited, as if trying to tell him something, then jumped through the shadows and ran out of the alleyway, around the corner and out of sight.

More shadows appeared. Scott swung at them again, destroying some more, but there were too many of them. He ignored the pain in his chest and ran after the dog around the corner, coming into a town square of some sort with a water fountain. More shadows appeared, coming at Scott from all sides, their claws slashing at him. Scott swiped at one and jumped through the space it had been, spotting a giant door. He ran towards it, dodging and defeating more shadows until he reached it. Opening it, he pulled it tightly shut behind himself before more of the shadows could follow.

Scott scanned the area around him to check if there were any more of the shadow creatures, but there were none. Looking around at the new district he was in, Scott saw there were more buildings, but these ones had their lights on inside to signal they were occupied. He didn't see anyone, so he decided to walk into the closest building – a shop. The bell chimed as Scott entered the store and looked around.

Behind the counter was a older man, with blonde hair held up by a set of goggles, who wore a white shirt, a big belt and blue pants. In his mouth he was chewing on a small piece of wood, like a toothpick or a stalk of wheat.

"Hey there, how can I…" the man said as he noticed Scott walk in, but trailed off when he got a good look at him. "Eh, you're just some kid."

Scott smirked and quickly answered, "Well, that's a nice way to treat a customer. And I was just going to spend all of my money in here too… too bad. Oh, and I'm NOT a kid by the way. Don't a judge book by its cover."

"Okay, simmer down. Fair enough." Cid said. "Hmmph. I like your spunk. What's your name?"

"Scott." Scott introduced himself. "And you are…?"

"Cid's the name." the man told him. "So, what would you like to buy, Scott?"

"I was just kidding before. I don't want to buy anything." Scott explained. "Actually, I was wondering if you have you seen my friend? She's shorter than I am, has brown hair and green eyes, and she's wearing this white hooded top, grey jeans and black shoes. Have you seen her?"

"Nope. Ain't seen no girl like that. Sorry." Cid said, shaking his head.

"Awwww…" Scott said in disappointment. He wondered if Leahna was in this town, or alive still…she could be anywhere. He felt worried, but if in the small hopes she had survived the fall miraculously too, Scott knew she could take care of herself. He had to focus on getting his bearings if he was going to find her. "Okay, I was also wondering if you could tell me… uh, where I am?"

Cid looked at him oddly. "What? What kind of question is that? Are you lost or something?"

"Uh no… well, sort of." Scott said, reluctant to look like he wasn't street-wise, but realized the only way he was going to get information was by asking questions. "What is the name of this town anyway?"

"Huh?" Cid said again, dumbfounded at first, but then went on to tell Scott everything. How he had never heard of his home, or the state or country he lived in.

"… and this is Traverse Town." Cid answered finally.

"Traverse Town?" Scott repeated, never having heard the name before. "So, like, is this place another world, or something, gramps?" he joked.

"Don't call me Gramps! The name's Cid!" the shopkeeper said annoyingly, and then realized Scott was joking and smirked. "Anyway… I'm not sure what you're talking about, but this ain't your neighbourhood."

"That's for sure." Scott agreed. He sighed. "Well, I guess I better go look for Leahna."

"Good luck with whatever it is you're doing." Cid waved him off. "If you ever run into trouble, you come back to me. I'll look out for you."

"Uh, thanks, I appreciate it." Scott said, then left the shop, looking out at the district in front of him. Where would he start searching for Leahna? 

Leahna had just finished exploring the third district, having narrowly escaped another group of Heartless. She slammed the door behind her and backed away from it slowly. The Heartless weren't following her this time. Maybe she had lost them?

She looked around her. She was back in the first district she had woken up in. This seemed like the only district that had lights on in the buildings. It hadn't been such a good idea to explore the other districts; the abandoned buildings seemed only to be occupied with the shadows she and Scott had first seen on the beach. Speaking of Scott, she still hadn't found him. Maybe he wasn't here. Maybe he was dead. She didn't want to think that way; last time she had seen him, they had been blown in the same direction in the vortex in the storm. She couldn't give up on him yet; he was the only friend she knew she had in this place. Walking through the district, she decided to walk into the closest building and find out if anyone had seen him, and if they knew where she was.

"Hey there, how can I help…" a man said as he looked up at her, then paused when he saw her. The man had blonde hair, and was wearing goggles, a white shirt, a large belt, and blue pants. "Oh, another kid. Jeez, you kids are just popping out of the woodwork these days, ain't ya?"

Leahna smirked. "Hey, I'm not a kid. But what do you mean, exactly?"

"The name's Cid." Cid introduced himself. "Say, you wouldn't happen to know the spunky kid that just walked in here, do ya? Brown messy hair, brown eyes, a black, red and white shirt and wearing jeans? And he called himself Scott."

Leahna felt surprised. "Yeah, he's a friend of mine. He was here!?"

"Yeah. You just missed him actually. He went to look for a friend called… Leslie or somethin'."

"It's Leahna, actually." Leahna corrected, smiling. "It's pronounced Le-ah-na."

"Okay, simmer down." Cid said. "If you go now, you might be able to catch him."

"Yeah I will, but first, erm, can you tell me where we are?" Leahna asked. Cid explained everything to her.

"Traverse Town." he said lastly, "That's the name of this town. Good luck finding him. If you need help, come back and see me. I'll look out for ya."

"Uhm, thanks." Leahna said. Cid seemed friendly enough, and in a strange place like this, it was good she could ask for help – if she needed it. The bell on the shop door rang as she stepped out, looking around for Scott in the hopes she could spot him. She didn't have to take long to find him.

She saw Scott, standing several steps away from her in the town square. The shadows had come back, and he was fighting them with his key weapon, too busy trying to protect himself to notice her. He swung around him furiously as the Heartless came at him, shattering the last of them with his strength as he tore his key through them. After he had finished fighting, Leahna was about to call out to him, but another voice beat her to it.

"They'll come at you out of nowhere." A suave male voice said, and from out of the shadows a man appeared.

The man had long brown hair, parted down the middle, with bangs that went down to about chin length. He had a distinguishing feature of a scar that started between his blue eyes and ended down across his nose, as if he had been cut with something sharp, and it made him look like he had been in a vicious swordfight. He wore a short leather jacket with short sleeves over a white shirt, with a furry white collar and a red symbol of a lion on the sleeve. He wore black flared pants with silver buckles on the sides, black shoes, and a series of three belts overlapping his waist that crossed over each other to look like a shape of the letter X from the front and back. He wore black fingerless gloves, and in his right hand he held a sword – but the handle looked like it was shaped like a gun, with the blade of the sword where the barrel should be.

Scott looked at the strange man, feeling uneasy because of the way he appeared, and the sword he was carrying. "Who are you?" he asked him, looking cautious.

"And they'll keep on coming at you, as long as you continue to wield the

Keyblade." The man continued, not answering Scott. "But why? Why would it choose _you_?"

"What is _that_ supposed to mean?" Scott asked again, wondering if the man was going to answer him this time. He didn't like being ignored.

"Never mind." the man said. "Now, let me see that keyblade." He started walking towards him and held his hand out towards Scott's weapon.

"Wait," Scott said, but the man grabbed what he had called the keyblade forcibly. Scott yanked it back out of his grasp and stepped away from him. "If you're going to be like that, there's no way I'm giving you anything."

"Hey, get off his case." Leahna said, deciding to step in. She looked at Scott. "Hey. I found you, finally." 

"Hey." Scott said, relieved to see Leahna alive. "Good to see you're okay."

"Yeah, you too." Leahna smiled, then stopped smiling when she looked at the man. "Just who do you think you are? He doesn't want to give it to you."

"Are you going to give me your keyblade instead?" the man asked Leahna.

"Yeah right. I didn't say that. Sorry that I can't give it to you… not." Leahna said sarcastically. She could see Scott smiling at her sarcasm and nodding in agreement with her.

"Suit yourself." the man said. Then he raised his sword.

"Looks like you could use some help Leon." A woman's voice said, as she jumped out of the shadows from the top of the building the man had come from.

The woman had strange violet-colored eyes and short black hair cut up to chin length, and a band tied around her head. She wore a sleeveless blue-colored top, short tan-colored shorts and brown shoes. In her hand was some kind of large ninja-star weapon shaped like an X, with the ends sharp and pointy.

"I'm fine, Yuffie." the man she had called Leon said to her.

"Yeah right." Yuffie said humorously to Leon, looking at Scott and Leahna. "Sorry guys, you obviously don't know what you're messing with. Hand over those Keyblades right now, or face the great ninja Yuffie!"

"We don't want to fight." Leahna said hesitantly, not sure if she and Scott could take on these two people in a fight, as they looked more experienced than they were. "You can't just go around demanding things from people and then taking them."

"She's right." Scott said in agreement. "You can look at them if you just ask why you want to. We need them to protect ourselves from those shadows that have been following us. We can't just hand them over like that. We don't even know you."

"You don't understand. You've made your choice. If you won't hand them over, we'll have to take them by force. Yuffie, let's go!" Leon said.

"Hiiiiiiiiiya!" Yuffie cried in acknowledgement, leaping towards them with her ninja star at the ready, Leon following up behind her with his sword.

Leahna braced herself with her Keyblade next to Scott as he readied his, wondering how they were going to come out of this. They were still wet, cold and tired from their encounter on the beach, and they had defeated shadows before, but not people. As Yuffie charged them, she clenched her teeth and readied for the worst…


	5. Chapter 4: The Keyblades

"You don't understand. You've made your choice. If you won't hand them over, we'll have to take them by force. Yuffie, let's go!" Leon said.

"Hiiiiiiiiiya!" Yuffie cried in acknowledgement, leaping towards them with her ninja star at the ready, Leon following up behind her with his sword.

Leahna braced herself with her Keyblade next to Scott as he readied his, wondering how they were going to come out of this. They were still wet, cold and tired from their encounter on the beach, and they had defeated shadows before, but not people. As Yuffie charged them, she clenched her teeth and readied for the worst…

Bringing up his keyblade, Scott watched as Yuffie ran forward and started swinging her ninja star at Leahna. Leahna tried to avoid Yuffie's attacks, and when she couldn't, the two weapons would resound together with a loud metallic clang.

Scott turned to help, but Leon stepped in his way and stopped him, and soon he found himself in a vicious swordfight with him. Scott put up his best efforts to block Leon's advances, trying to stop the fight as quickly as he could by trying to knock Leon's sword out of his hands, but it wasn't as easy as it sounded.

Leahna wasn't sure what to do; she had never fought against anyone like this. What was she supposed to do? Keep blocking and dodging until Yuffie got tired? With the way the woman was smashing against her keyblade, that didn't seem like an option anytime soon. Leahna realized if she wanted to get answers out of these people, she was going to have to talk some sense into them.

"Hey, I don't want to fight with you guys, okay?" Leahna tried to tell Yuffie, blocking as Yuffie kept smashing her ninja star against her keyblade, "I really hate having to fight other people."

"Oh, so you can fight some Heartless, but you can't take the conflict of fighting people, huh?" Yuffie taunted her, thinking she had found an opening to hit Leahna, but she blocked it.

"I didn't say that, but if I knock some sense into you, you'll know why." Leahna said angrily, ready to fight Yuffie.

Yuffie tried to make a grab for the keyblade, and Leahna found her opening. She backed away from Yuffie's advance and swung back in with her keyblade, striking her on the leg. "Owww!" she cried, and threw her ninja star at her opponent. Leahna brought up her keyblade in front of her to defend herself, but the ninja star flew around her, then came back like a boomerang, hitting Leahna from behind. She covered her hands over her head where the ninja star had hit, feeling the pain.

"You're slipping, Squall. I got in the first hit! Not so quick with your gunblade, are ya?" Yuffie teased her teammate this time, as Leon continued to parry swords with Scott. Scott remained defensive and was having trouble keeping up with Leon, suddenly catching Leahna out the corner of her eye and noticed her getting hurt. _No, stay focused! _he thought, concentrating on Leon again. _Fight your own fights. As much as I don't like seeing her get hurt, she has to look after herself. Anyway, deal with _ _Leon__ and then see if you can help her._

"It's Leon." The man shouted back as he recovered from Scott's attack. Leon jumped backwards and slashed his sword forward in the air. Scott didn't think much of it at first, until a fireball was launched from the gunblade at him. Not expecting it, the fireball struck him and made a small explosion, burning through his clothing and into his skin. Scott gritted his teeth and fought the pain, running towards Leon. "What the hell was that!?" he yelled at Leon, clashing swords with him offensively. 

"It's called magic." Leon sighed, locking his gunblade with Scott's keyblade and pushed against him. "You should know that."

"Hey, Presto, that wasn't some cheap magic trick. That thing really hurt!" Scott remarked angrily, pushing back against Leon, equally matching him. When Leon moved, Scott pushed again sending Leon back, allowing him to land a hit on Leon.

Yuffie took her chance and tried to grab Leahna's keyblade off her while she was hurt. "C'mon, give me it!" she demanded impatiently. Leahna recovered and pulled back. "No way. I've had enough of this!" she said back to the ninja. She managed to poke the keyblade into Yuffie's stomach, making her let go so she could yank the Keyblade out of Yuffie's grip.

Yuffie growled in annoyance. "You really are stubborn, you know that? Fine." She leaped back and threw her ninja star again. Leahna changed tactics and tried to run behind one of the buildings for cover, but the ninja star followed after her around the corner, striking her in the back of the leg and making her stumble. "Don't you learn anything?" Yuffie called to Leahna, as she jumped up on top of the building she had run around to make herself look superior. "The star will just follow you wherever you go. Just give up already, you'll only hurt yourself."

"That's what you think." Leahna called back. "It only hurts when I hear you talk!" She was really getting annoyed by Yuffie's taunts. There had to be some way she could stop her to make her eat her words… suddenly she came up with an idea. _You've just screwed up, Yuffie. _She thought. She only hoped this plan would work. She started to run back out to the square where Scott and Leon where still fighting, with Yuffie in hot pursuit.

Leon leaped high into the air and swung down with his sword in a powerful arc as a different tactic. Scott tried to block it with his sword, but the energy from his sword was so powerful it knocked him off balance, and Leon punished him for it by hitting him with his sword a second time. Scott tried to think as Leon ran to jump into the air again towards him. Whenever Leon landed, he took a few seconds to get up and swing at him. That left him vulnerable…

Leon jumped and raised his sword above his head, and Scott dodged and moved away from him, making Leon miss and kneel on the ground without striking his target. Scott seized his chance and struck at Leon while he was vulnerable, hitting him across the chest. Leon cried out in pain, just as Leahna approached them.

"Scott!" she called to him, using her entire body weight to push him out of the way as Yuffie's ninja star came after her, barely missing him. As she ran around behind Leon, the ninja star struck him instead. Then having hit a target, the ninja star went back towards Yuffie. But Yuffie wasn't paying attention.

" Leon! Ooops! I'm sorry!" she called, as Leon knelt to the ground in defeat. While she was distracted, the ninja star came back to her and not catching it, it flew right into her. "Oww!" she cried out, and knelt to the ground too, then tried to reach for her ninja star. She looked up and saw Scott had his keyblade held out and pointed at her.

"That's enough, you're done." He told her. "Drop your weapon. No more fighting."

"Tell us. Why are you fighting us?" Leahna demanded, who had her keyblade pointed at an unarmed Leon, who was standing up.

"Awww, okay, fine. Those creatures attacking you are after the keyblades. But it's your heart they really want, because you wield the keyblades." she explained.

"So they want our hearts, because we have these?" Scott asked as he looked at his keyblade, feeling a little confused.

"The Keyblades… yeah, we had to get them away from you guys to shake off those creatures. It turns out that's how they are tracking you." Yuffie nodded.

"It was the only way to conceal your hearts from them." Leon spoke up. "But it won't work for long. It's hard to believe that you two of all the people are the chosen ones."

"Chosen ones? No thanks." Leahna shook her head. "I don't want to be a part of someone's grand plan, I just want to go home. Here, have it." she said, giving her keyblade to Leon. Leon held for a moment, then the keyblade disappeared in a flash of light, reappearing in Leahna's possession.

"Well, beggars can't be choosers." Leon shrugged. "Guess that battle was all for nothing."

"Gimme that!" Yuffie said impatiently, snatching Scott's keyblade off him while he wasn't looking. "Hey!" Scott said in surprise, but his keyblade disappeared out of Yuffie's hands and back into his. "Hey, cool. Well, I guess we're chosen ones, if we like it or not. But I don't understand. Chosen ones of what exactly?"

"Yeah," Leahna said annoyingly, wishing she could go home. "This doesn't make any sense. What are those shadows stalking us?"

"They're called Heartless." Leon said.

"Heartless?" Scott repeated the name. He remembered the giant shadow he and Leahna fought on the beach. It had the hole shaped like a heart cut out of it's chest. But what were they exactly?

"Those without hearts." Leon went on explaining. "The darkness in people's hearts – that's what attracts them. And there is a darkness within every heart."

Scott remembered the man falling over dying becoming a heartless. It had to be true. He just couldn't believe it was actually possible. How does something like that happen? Was there somebody behind all this?

Yuffie seemed to answer his question before he could form it into worlds. "Have you two ever heard of a guy called Ansem?"

Leahna shook her head. "No, I haven't." She looked at Scott expectantly.

"Don't look at me, I don't know him either." Scott shook his head slightly too. "But what does he have to do with any of this? Is he the one behind it?"

"He was studying the Heartless. That's all we know so far." Yuffie sighed. "It was said that he had a written report on his research, but when the Heartless first exploded onto the scene, the pages were torn out and went missing. About the same time, the keyblades appeared. They're keys for some reason, but we don't know what for yet."

"So… these are the keys?" Scott wondered. He remembered the keyhole he saw on the beach. Were they for unlocking stuff, or unlocking them?

"Exactly!" Yuffie interrupted his thoughts.

"The Heartless have great fear of the keyblade." Leon said. "That's why they'll keep coming after you two, no matter what."

Scott sighed, imagining Heartless coming after him for the rest of his life. He wouldn't be able to get rid of the keyblade. How was he supposed to sleep easy knowing that? "You know, Leahna's right. We didn't ask for this. We should just go home."

"The keyblades chose their masters. And it chose you two." Yuffie replied simply.

"Tough luck." Leon added.

"Can you at least tell us how we can get home from here?" Leahna asked. "We can't stay here, we have people back at home probably wondering where we are."

Scott and Leahna explained where they were from. The conversation went on for several minutes, but no matter how many references to their home they made, Leon and Yuffie had never heard of them.

"You know what," Leon said finally, "I really don't know." He turned to Yuffie. "We should go join Aerith. She should be there by now with the other visitors."

_Other visitors?_ Scott wondered. _What did that mean? _He was just about to ask Leon, when suddenly the Heartless appeared. They appeared around them from all sides, surrounding them.

" Leon!" Yuffie called in alert.

"Yuffie, go!" Leon said. Yuffie grabbed her ninja star and leaped through the Heartless, throwing her ninja star into them. Then she ran off behind the buildings and out of sight.

"Where's she going?" Scott asked Leon.

"To get Aerith. I'll fight the Heartless with you." Leon said.

"Are you sure? I gave you a pretty good beating, Punching Bag." Scott smiled.

"I went easy on you. I got a good rest while we were talking." Leon smirked.

Scott, Leahna and Leon all readied their swords again as the Heartless stood around them. Then another one appeared, but this time it was different. It was wearing a knight's helmet and body helmet. It stood behind the other smaller Heartless while they jumped ahead to attack.

"Leahna, Scott, let's go!" Leon said.

Leahna looked hesitant, and so was Scott. He still felt hurt from the battle with the giant Heartless and Leon. How much fighting was he supposed to do with the keyblade in just one day? The Heartless closed in. They had no choice. They were tired and not ready, but once again, he and Leahna ran forward together with their keyblades to meet the Heartless…


	6. Chapter 5: The Foursome Are Awesome

Scott, Leahna and Leon all readied their swords again as the Heartless stood around them. Then another one appeared, but this time it was different. It was wearing a knight's helmet and body helmet. It stood behind the other smaller Heartless while they jumped ahead to attack.

"Leahna, Scott, let's go!" Leon said.

Leahna looked hesitant, and so was Scott. He still felt hurt from the battle with the giant Heartless and Leon. How much fighting was he supposed to do with the keyblade in just one day? The Heartless closed in. They had no choice. They were tired and not ready, but once again, he and Leahna ran forward together with their keyblades to meet the Heartless…

Scott slashed his keyblade through a Heartless, defeating it. Leahna did the same, shattering a Heartless form into nothingness as they advanced through the group of shadows.

"Don't go after small fry! Go after the leader, he's commanding them!" Squall said, pointing at the Solider Heartless. "I'll hold the rest off."

Leahna ran ahead of Scott as they chased after the Solider Heartless. It ran off and through the giant door into the third district. They chased after it, finally cornering it in below a balcony. Leahna struck at it with her keyblade, then Scott his in sequence, defeating the Soldier Heartless once and for all.

"Hey, nice work." Scott said, catching his breath. He was still cold, tired, and hurt from everything that had happened.

"Yeah, you too." Leahna replied, getting her breath back too. She was also cold, tired, and hurt, not to mention they were both dirty from wet sand from the storm on their beach. Would this night ever end?

Suddenly they heard shouting from the balcony above them, and before they could turn around to see who it was, two people fell off the balcony and landed on top of them, breaking their fall. It wasn't until the two people recovered that they spotted the weapons Scott and Leahna held out in front of them.

"The keys!" they exclaimed together cheerfully, as if they had been looking for them all along.

"Hey, you guys mind getting off us?" Leahna asked, as she lay down on her stomach next to Scott, not able to see who had landed on them.

"Yeah, you're kinda on the heavy side, no offence." Scott complained, who was also laying on his chest and couldn't see past the green of Leahna's eyes while he tried to look behind him.

"Sorry." the two people said together. The person who landed on Leahna got off; it wasn't a human at all. He was a short duck, with white feathers and a yellow bill with matching webbed feet, and big black eyes. He was wearing a blue cap with zips and a matching vest in the same colour.

The person who got off Scott was also not human; he was a tall sort of animal with black fur, long ears and a kind of dog-like snout, but had short, blunt front incisors that stuck out from his upper lip like a walrus. He wore a yellow hat, a green long-sleeved shirt under a sleeveless black pocketed vest, and a yellow pair of pants with a black belt and a brown and white pair of shoes to accessorize.

Scott was about to ask who exactly they were, when more bodies started dropping from the balcony – this time though, they were Heartless. The duck pulled out a weapon that looked like a magic wand, and blasted a fireball towards the raining Heartless, destroying some of them. The ones that landed on the ground came for them, but the tall dog-like one raised his shield and charged at them like a battering ram, destroying them completely.

Then, a giant Heartless appeared out from the shadows. It looked like the Soldier Heartless, but as if it was made completely out of battle armor, with a strange heart-shaped symbol on it's torso that was the only proof it was a Heartless at all. It had hands and feet, but like the head they were disconnected from the body and not attached by limbs or a neck, simply floating in space where they . It lunged forward and took a swipe at them with its claws.

"Look out!" Scott said, as he tried to move out of the way but got slashed in the chest instead. The duck and the dog-looking person got kicked by the feet, and the other hand swept down and slashed Leahna in the arm. Scott ran forward and slashed his keyblade through the offending arm angrily, destroying it as the other clawed hand retreated. The duck and the dog attacked one of the feet, destroying it. Leahna stopped being hesitant and ran up to the other foot, which was rising up to stomp her. Leahna raised her keyblade as she backed away and sliced at it, destroying the other foot.

The claw hand came back down and came for the duck, but Scott jumped in the way and blocked it, then attacked and destroyed it. Then the underside of the body armor's torso raised up and gathered energy, and Scott realized the hole at the bottom of the torso armor was a giant cannon, and it was aimed at the dog-like person and Leahna. The beam fired and the dog-like person blocked it with his shield, guarding Leahna for a moment, before the beam became too powerful and sent him flying over Leahna's head. Leahna watched him land for a moment, then turned back and saw the Heartless had lowered its helmet, and jumped up to attack. She took several good whacks with her keyblade before the helmet was completely destroyed.

Scott had already started attacking the torso armor with the duck, but as soon as the dog-looking person had charged back in with his shield and shattered the armor, it took several hits with the duck's fireballs and Scott's and Leahna's keyblades until the Heartless was completely destroyed.

There was silence for a few moments, before the four looked at each other and smiled. There were no more Heartless. They seemed to have retreated now the big Guard Armor Heartless was destroyed, at least for now.

"So were you guys looking for us?" Leahna broke the silence.

"Yep." The duck and the dog-person nodded together. 

"They, too, have been seeking the wielders of the Keyblade." Leon's voice said, as he entered the area, having overheard them.

"But why?" Scott wondered, looking towards the new people.

"Because our king told us to." The duck said.

"The king said the stars in the sky are blinkin' out. And while he's gone to check in on it, he ordered us to find the ones with the keys because we'll need 'em!" the dog-like person explained happily.

"Don't tell me you want to fight us to get our keys too! We've been through enough already!" Scott exclaimed, starting to get defensive.

"Gwash, we're not taking their keys, are we?" the dog-looking one asked the duck.

"We don't wanna take their keys, you big palooka!" the duck squawked. "Whatever gave you guys that idea?"

"Oh, I dunno, maybe Leon here." Leahna smiled, looking at the man.

Leon sighed. "Yeah, I admit that attacking you guys to get the Keyblades was a mistake. I can see you guys can handle yourselves. But the point is, these guys here want to help. The keyblades exist for a reason, and their king knows why. He just wants them to accompany you guys so he can keep in touch with what's going on until he gets back."

"Okay." Scott said understandingly. "So you guys don't know what the keyblades are for, besides defeating Heartless, and when your king is coming back?"

"Nuh-uh." both the duck and the dog-person shook their heads.

"Do you know how we can get home?" Leahna asked suddenly.

"Where do you live?" the duck asked.

Scott and Leahna explained, but the duck and the dog shook their heads.

"We came here from another world in our spaceship." The dog explained. "Maybe your world is out there somewhere too."

"World?" Leahna asked suddenly. "What do you mean, like we're on another planet?"

"I'm not sure what you mean by that, but if you mean you're on a different world, that's probably the case." Leon said. "Me, Yuffie and Aerith came here from another world before it was engulfed by the Heartless. I'm starting to think maybe it's the same case with your world too."

"Say, since we have to stick together, why don't you two come with us?" the dog-like person asked. "We can also go to other worlds on our vessel."

Scott and Leahna looked at each other in uncertainty. They had just met these people, and already they were offering a ride. They didn't even know each other's names yet. It was definitely not a good idea to go riding around with strangers. But then again, these people did fight along side them and protect them. They seemed friendly and harmless enough. If it was true, this might be the last chance they could get off this world and find their home again.

"What do you think we should do, Scott? Should we go with them?" Leahna asked hesitantly, trying to think what her mum would suggest. Leon and his friends seemed to be the only authority on this world, and they hadn't mentioned they had a ship they could use.

"I say… uh…" Scott hesitated, trying to think of what was best for himself and Leahna. This didn't seem like a trap, and it wasn't every day they were offered to go into outer space. If their world wasn't here, they couldn't wait around for people to come and rescue them if they didn't know where they were. "Well, I wonder if we could, if we could find our home…" he suggested to the two people with the ship.

"Of course!" the duck piped up happily.

The dog-person bent down to the duck to whisper something, then the duck whispered back. This made Scott feel more hesitant about trusting them, and he looked over at Leahna in uncertainty. She looked back at him with the same look. Could they trust them?

"Leahna, Scott, go with them. Especially if you want to find your home." Leon encouraged. "You can trust them, they're with the king."

"But we don't even know who this king is. We've just met you all tonight." Scott said. He looked at Leahna, wanting to talk privately with her, but he could see from the cut in her arm and the look on her face she was absolutely exhausted, like he was. "I dunno. We need time to talk alone and think about this. We're really tired."

"You can't come along if you're looking like that." the duck said to Scott. "No frowning. No sad face. Okay?"

"Yeah," the dog-person said, leaning in towards his duck friend with a funny face, "You gotta look funny, like us!"

The duck rolled his eyes and pushed the dog-person's face away. "This boat runs on happy faces." he encouraged none the less.

Scott was tired, and hurt, and cold. But Goofy's face had made him smile. They were trying to make them feel more comfortable by making them laugh, and he could understand that. "Happy, like this?" he said, and grinned, making a face.

The duck and the dog-person laughed. Leahna laughed as well. Even Leon made a smile.

"That is one funny face!" the duck laughed.

"Yeah." Scott chuckled, then there was silence. "So, um, we'll sleep on it, okay? Then we'll let you guys know. Leon, you know a place we could crash around here, maybe one with nice hot showers?"

"There's a hotel in the second district." Leon said. "You can stay there; the innkeeper fled when all the Heartless came."

"Cool." Scott nodded. "Well, let's go together then, I guess."

"Donald Duck." The duck said, putting a hand up to introduce himself.

"The name's Goofy." The dog-like person said, putting his hand on top of Donald's and looked expectantly at Scott and Leahna to do the same.

Leahna stepped forward. "My name is Leahna. But you can call me Larnie." she smiled, putting her hand on top of Goofy's.

Scott stepped forward, and put his hand on top of Leahna's. "And I'm Scott." He smiled, looking around at the group.

"All for one and one for all!" Goofy said cheerfully, as everyone threw up their hands up as a team.

"So there's four of us now, I guess." Leahna laughed.

"We're a foursome. That's awesome." Scott rhymed accidentally, and laughed at himself. "The foursome are awesome."

"I'm going to check on Yuffie and Aerith. Aerith should be able to heal you all once we get there." Leon said. "If you want to go to the hotel, it's this way."

Donald Duck and Goofy followed after him, with Leahna and Scott in tow. _It was about time we got some rest, _Scott thought.

Scott sensed Leahna looking at him, and he met her eyes, as if he knew what was on her mind. "We'll talk about it tomorrow. I'll come and knock on your door to check if you're awake." Scott said to Leahna, and she just nodded tiredly. Scott nodded in acknowledgement too and looked ahead at the hotel in front of them, wondering what would lie ahead for tomorrow…


	7. Chapter 6: Decisions and Collisions

"We're a foursome. That's awesome." Scott rhymed accidentally, and laughed at himself. "The foursome are awesome."

"I'm going to check on Yuffie and Aerith. Aerith should be able to heal you all once we get there." Leon said. "If you want to go to the hotel, it's this way."

Donald Duck and Goofy followed after him, with Leahna and Scott in tow. _It was about time we got some rest, _Scott thought.

Scott sensed Leahna looking at him, and he met her eyes, as if he knew what was on her mind. "We'll talk about it tomorrow. I'll come and knock on your door to check if you're awake." Scott said to Leahna, and she just nodded tiredly. Scott nodded in acknowledgement too and looked ahead at the hotel in front of them, wondering what would lie ahead for tomorrow…

Leahna woke up. She was hoping that all of last night, with the heartless, the keyblades and her world disappearing had all been some weird dream. A cold breeze blew over her. She rolled over in half asleep, trying to get more comfortable in her bed, trying to pull the covers over her to keep herself warm. After feeling around for them for a moment, she realized the covers weren't there. She sat up to look for them, feeling cold and tired, when her eyes widened in shock when she realized she was no longer in her bed at home, or even in the motel room she had fallen asleep in last night. She was sitting up on the beach, her beach, the secret beach at home.

She looked around her. It was day. Was she back? Had she been taken back to her home somehow in the night? How did it happen? Questions swam through her confused mind.

Then the tide on the beach suddenly pulled out.

She looked up, and suddenly a giant wave loomed over her head. It crashed down over her before she knew what was happening, and an underwater riptide pulled her under the ocean waves. She swam against the current as she flipped and spun underwater, not knowing up from down as she swam for the surface, but the current was too strong. She sensed she was being pulled downwards because it was getting darker and darker as she moved through the water, not breaking or even seeing the surface. She closed her eyes and feeling her lungs burning, expected the worst. _This is not how I want to die._

Suddenly she stopped, and she floated upright head over heals, and she squinted her eyes open. She couldn't fight the reflex anymore and breathed uncontrollably, but she breathed in to her sudden relief air, and not salty sea water. Her feet finally touched the ground and when they did, in the darkness suddenly light filtered up from the floor. From the light birds flew out, like white doves, flying in a flock around and away from Larnie, as if they had been part of the dark ocean floor, revealing the stain glass window beneath them as the light stretched out. As a familiar mist formed around her, she suddenly got a strange sense of déjà vu, like she had been there before.

She looked at the stain glass floor beneath her feet. In the window was a giant image of her, holding her Keyblade. In the background of the picture, was a headshot of Scott, Goofy and Donald Duck.

_So much to do, so little time... Take your time. _A mysterious voice said._ Don't be_

_afraid. The door is still shut. Now, step forward. Can you do it?_

Suddenly some shadows appeared, but Leahna knew their true name for them now. Heartless. Calling it to her hand, she summoned her keyblade and stared down the heartless.

_There will be times you have to fight. Keep your light_

_burning strong. _The mysterious voice encouraged her.

The Heartless attacked. She waited a moment for them to get closer, then she struck, swinging her keyblade into them and destroying them as they came for her.

_Look out!_ The mysterious voice warned her.

She turned around when she heard the voice and saw a Heartless making a sneak attack from behind, blocking it, then smashed it into nothingness. When all became quiet again, she looked up and around her for the source of the mysterious voice. But there was nobody there. Suddenly, in a flash of light, a door appeared. Leahna stepped towards it to open it, but found it locked.

_The day you will open the door is both very far and very near,_ the mysterious voice advised her, coming from everywhere and nowhere at once. _But don't be afraid. You hold the mightiest weapon of all. So don't forget; you are the one that will open the door._

Leahna held up her key, considering the words were a clue. A light shot out of the end of her Keyblade and straight into the keyhole of the door. The doors unlocked and swung open, revealing a bright light as Leahna stepped inside.

Leahna was back on the beach. It was dark, as the heart-shaped moon and the falling stars were revealed in the night-time sky. There was a light, and Leahna refocused her eyes, realizing someone was curled up on the ground. Approaching it, she suddenly realized who it was.

"Scott!"

He had blood running down his face and looked to be in a great deal of pain. Leahna knelt down next to him, trying to figure out what was wrong. Suddenly a dark shadow grew out of him, and she moved back away from him. The shadow formed into the shape of two figures, looking at her with shadowy faces she couldn't make out in the darkness. The earth shook and the wind blew a sandstorm around her, and as the world began to crumble away from her again, the shadow from Scott extended from him and began shrouding Leahna in darkness. She tried to fight back with her Keyblade, but it had no effect, the cold darkness pulling her down into the depths… 

Leahna woke up in bed, sitting up suddenly. The dream she had just woken up from – it was the exact same dream that she had dreamt on the night of the storm. That's where she had gotten the sense of déjà vu in her dream. But this time, some of the gaps had been filled in from the information she now knew. It was weird that she had the dream again. It felt so real, she wasn't even sure if she was awake yet.

She looked around. She was not back in her own bed at home, but in the bed she had fallen asleep in last night in the hotel room she had picked. Apart from the dream, she felt rested after a good night's sleep, and from being healed and having taken a shower last night. She didn't want to go back to sleep to have the same dream again, so she got up out of bed, still with her clothes on from the day before, and looked at the strange grandfather clock in the room. The time said it was 9:15. She put her shoes on and as she tied up the last one, she heard a knock at the door.

"Larnie?" a muffled male voice called through the door. "It's Scott. Are you awake?"

"Yeah, come in." Leahna said, deciding she would stay sitting on the bed. She looked towards the door as Scott came in and closed it behind him.

" 'Morning." he smiled and waved, deciding to remain standing up as there wasn't much place else to sit down in the room. "Feeling better?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm great, thanks." Leahna nodded. "Apart from the fact we have these shadows called Heartless coming after us, apparently we've been blown off our world into another one, and now two strangers have offered us a ride into outer space."

Scott chuckled half-heartedly. "I'm feeling a lot better too. And yeah, when you put it that way, it does sound random. But about that… we need to decide what to do." He crossed his arms over his chest. "So, what do you think we should do?"

"Hmmm. I'm not sure." Leahna said, looking away from Scott in thought. She tried to put herself in her mum's shoes again and considered what she would want her daughter to do. If she was lost anywhere, her mum would probably ask her to try and find out where she was, then try to contact her to let her know where she was so she could come and find her straight away. She probably wouldn't want her to talk to strangers – well, she had already broken that rule. She had found out where she was though – she was stuck in another world. She didn't have her mobile phone with her, she had left it at home when she thought she was only stepping out for a few minutes in the storm. Maybe there was some way of contacting her mum. But even if she did, how could her mum come to get her? She was in another world. Donald Duck and Goofy said they used their spaceship to travel between other worlds. Even if her mum did send someone to rescue her in a spaceship, how would they know where she was? Leahna didn't even know how far away home was from here, or even in which direction. They were completely lost.

"We could either just stay here and wait for someone else to come, when there could be no-one coming," Scott suggested their options, breaking the silence. "Or go with Donald and Goofy in their spaceship and find it somehow, and miss rescue if it comes."

"Mmmhmm. Yeah." Leahna said in thought. "Nobody knows we're here. And even if they did, they can't come rescue us." Her mum hadn't told her what to do in a situation like this. She would have to decide on her own. But she wasn't sure. It felt like leaving this place was a bad idea. "What do you think we should do?"

"I think we should just go." Scott said. "Donald and Goofy said they've been ordered to stay with us because of their king. If we go with them, maybe we can find their king. He might know more about how we can get back home."

"Yeahhhh…." Leahna said in uncertainty. "I think it's a better idea if we stay here. My mum and my friends might have been blown here by the storm, too. I don't want to leave if they're here or I might miss them. I won't leave them behind."

"We should ask Leon and the others more about if anyone else has turned up, and more about the worlds they came from. If they came from our world, then they would know how we can get back." Scott said definitely. "Before we make a decision, we should do that."

Leahna nodded. There was a knock on the door. "Come in." Leahna called. The door opened and a new woman peeked around the door.

"We thought you two might be in here," the woman said.

"Morning, Aerith." Scott waved. Leahna and Scott had met Aerith the night before. She was the one that had healed hers and Scott's wounds from the battles the night before. She had brown hair, with large bangs over her forehead, and the rest done up in a ponytail, and bright green eyes. She wore a long, red sleeveless dress and brown boots.

"How are you both feeling this morning?" Aerith asked politely.

"Good." Leahna answered.

"Fine." Scott complied. "Is there something you wanted, Aerith?"

"The others want to know if you've decided to go with Donald and Goofy." Aerith answered.

"Actually, we still haven't decided." Scott said. "Right, Larnie?"

"Erm, yeah." Leahna replied.

"Actually, we wanted to ask you a few questions, before we do." Scott told Aerith.

"Good, because we're here to answer 'em!" Yuffie's voice answered from behind the door as she pushed past Aerith, boldly entering the room. Leon entered after her, followed by Donald and Goofy.

Scott moved from in front of Leahna's bed as the people entered the room and sat down next to her. "Okay, so here's what we want to know. First of all, is there any way we can communicate to another world, like with a phone or something?"

"Phone?" Leon said in puzzlement.

"What's a phone?" Yuffie asked.

"Just forget it." Leahna sighed. "Is there any way we could contact our home and let our family know where we are?"

"Gwrash, we can't do that, or it would mess around with the world border." Goofy said.

"That's world _order, _Goofy." Donald corrected him. "We can't let anyone in other worlds know that we're from a different world."

"Wait, so how come you told us?" Scott wondered.

"Because you're not from this world." Leon answered. "The world order means that we can't give the local inhabitants of a world information that there are other worlds out there and that there are ways they can travel to those worlds."

"If we do, that means people can use it for the wrong means, like Ansem." Yuffie added.

"So basically, there is no way to communicate between worlds, because they're not supposed to know about it in the first place. Sorry." Aerith apologized.

"Yeah okay," Leahna said understandingly, eager to ask her next question. "Hey, has anyone found anyone from our world wondering around this town, like us?"

"Nope. Besides Donald and Goofy, you two were the only ones that showed up last night." Yuffie informed them. "I did a sweep of the perimeter this morning, but I didn't see anyone in town."

"Okay…" Leahna said in disappointment. She wished her mum and close friends were there. She sighed and looked down at the floor. She missed being at home.

"Leahna really misses her home." she heard Scott say empathetically. "It would be okay if at least her mum knew she was here. There has to be something else we can do, we can't just go on a spaceship if someone is looking for us, it would be more responsible if we just wait for rescue. Someone might know we are here, if we left we would miss them."

"Didn't you want to go with Donald and Goofy before?" Leahna asked, looking up at him.

"I did," Scott replied, "But I changed my mind. You looked down when Yuffie told you no-one but us is here from our world. I'm trying to go with what's best for the both of us, instead of what I just want. Besides, your mum wouldn't approve if we went flying off into space when we should have stayed here."

"Shucks, I'm sure we can come back if they did come here, right Donald?" Goofy said.

"Yeah!" Donald agreed.

"If you did, we'd let you know if we saw anyone, okay?" Aerith said kindly.

"What about you guys? Didn't you come from our world?" Leahna asked, looking up at Leon, Yuffie and Aerith.

"Nope. We came from a different world than the one you described." Yuffie shook her head. "Right Leon?"

Leon didn't say anything and folded his arms across his chest.

"That's just Leon's way of saying he doesn't want to talk about it." Aerith answered for him. "We all felt we could have done something to stop the Heartless from invading our home."

"The way I see it, your family and friends are waiting for you at home." Leon spoke up. "You've both just gone missing, and it's up to you to find your home and get back there. And until our ship gets fixed from the crash landing we had on this world, your best chance of finding your home is to go with Donald and Goofy."

"Yeah!" Donald exclaimed. "The sooner we find the king, the better."

"So, are ya gonna come?" Goofy asked.

"I'm going to let you decide, Larnie." Scott said. "The choice we make doesn't affect me much either way. I don't live close to my family anymore. But you do, and the decision we make will let them find you or not. So it's up to you. I'll stand by your choice."

Leahna still felt hesitant. There were pros and cons to going or staying. She looked at everyone she had just met yesterday in the room, and then at Scott sitting next to her.

"You don't have to decide today, it's really no big deal." Scott said, which made her feel less pressured about being put on the spot. "But 50 years from now, would you look back at this moment and ask yourself what it would have been like, if we did get on that spaceship?"

Leahna took a breath and thought. She felt she was probably going to make the wrong decision, but she had to go with something eventually. This was just one more thing to get through in order to get home.

"Okay, we'll go with you." she finally decided, smiling.

"Oh boy!" Donald cheered.

"Glad to have you with us!" Goofy exclaimed.

"Make sure you're prepared for the journey ahead of you before you set out." Leon said. "We don't know how far the Heartless have spread."

"This is from all of us." Aerith said. She stepped over and gave Leahna a small bag with a drawstring. "It's munny. You can spend it here at Cid's shop."

"Check it out, he's got some pretty neat stuff!" Yuffie suggested.

"And this is from Leon." Aerith smiled. "It's some food supplies, including some elixirs."

"Good luck!" Yuffie said, as she turned around to leave and waved.

"I hope you find the king, and your home soon." Aerith encouraged sweetly, and walked out after Yuffie.

"Look out for each other. Keep your spirits up." Leon said, uncrossing his arms and leaving the room with the girls.

"Yeah, we will." Scott smiled after them, and put his hand on Leahna's shoulder. "Are you ready? I am." He said, and stood up.

Leahna smiled. "Yeah. Let's go."

"The gummi ship is outside that gate." Donald said, pointing at the gates in the first district as he, Goofy, Scott and Leahna walked towards them outside a few minutes later.

"_Gummi_ ship?" Scott asked.

"Yup. That's our ship." Donald confirmed.

"Wait 'till ya see it!" Goofy said excitedly.

"Aww, wait Goofy, we almost forgot to give them our stuff!" Donald said. He brought out his wand and waved it at Leahna and Scott.

Leahna felt a strange warmth through her as she and Scott were covered in a strange red aura. "What was that?" she asked Donald.

"As a Court Magician, now you can use magic, too! That was the power of fire! Use it when you're in a pinch!" Donald said. "Try it with your keyblade and think about shooting a fireball!"

Leahna summoned her Keyblade and pointed it at a stone wall. Suddenly a fireball shot out from the tip of the blade and exploded harmlessly into the wall.

"Cool," Leahna smiled.

"Now you try, Scott!" Donald said.

"Uh, maybe later." Scott said, looking hesitant.

Leahna grinned. "What's the matter, Scott? Don't think you can do it better than I can?"

Scott smirked. "In case you forgot, Leon burned me with a fireball when we fought last night." Scott said, remembering how the pain burned in his skin until Aerith had healed it. "So sorry if I don't want to play with fire right now. Besides, magic is weird enough a it is."

"Okay." Leahna said. "Fair enough." She had been hesitant using the keyblade, and Scott hadn't teased her about it. She did feel a bit sorry about his burns. They had looked like they had hurt.

"Okay then Goofy, give them the other thing, and let Scott try it out." Donald suggested.

"What?" Goofy wondered, sounding absent-minded.

"You know!" Donald said expectantly.

"Oh yeah!" Goofy said. "This is an ability I was using when we fought the Heartless. I like to call it the Dodge Roll. Here, I'll show you." Goofy rolled along the ground. "You try it, Scott."

"Like this?" Scott said, and rolled along the ground like Goofy had, copying his style.

"Yup, that's it!" Goofy nodded. "It's useful for dodging enemy attacks. I'll teach you more along the way… when I remember them, that is."

"Is that it?" Leahna asked, still giggling a little at the thought of Scott rolling around.

"Not until we're ready!" Donald said. "Goofy, what about Pluto?"

"Who's Pluto?" Scott asked.

"He's the king's dog." Goofy explained. "He went missing last night when we went looking for you guys. He didn't come back last night, but I asked Leon and the gang to look out for him."

"I saw a dog last night." Leahna said, having a flashback. "He woke me up."

"Me too." Scott said. "He warned me the Heartless were coming."

"There's no use looking for him," Goofy explained, "He'll only obey the king. He's always following that famous nose of his, it can smell just about anything. He'll show up when he wants to be found."

"Oh boy, what was all that about?" came a new voice. It was coming from Goofy's hat. A small character popped out from under the cap and dusted off his top hat. He was also wearing a small tuxedo top with tails and smart black shoes.

"Whoops, sorry Jiminy." Goofy said. "Forgot you were under there."

"You gave me quite a scare, I thought I was going to fall out!" Jiminy said. "Jiminy Cricket's the name." he introduced himself, taking off his little top hat and bowed to Scott and Leahna. "Would have introduced myself last night, but there was so much going on, I was still writing after you two had gone to bed."

"Jiminy is writing a journal for the queen." Goofy explained. "He's coming with us too."

"Enough talk, let's get going!" Donald said impatiently, and lead everyone outside the gates to the gummi ship. Once they had boarded the large ship, Donald took them past the rooms. "We have five cabins. Goofy and I have a cabin, and you both get one too. We also have a kitchen, a brig, even a bathroom!" he said proudly. He led them until they arrived in the cockpit. "And now I'm gonna teach you how to fly the Gummi ship!"

"Teach us to fly the ship!?" Scott said astonishingly.

"Are you sure?" Leahna said hesitantly.

"Of course!" Donald said. "We all learn how to fly in case of an emergency. Larnie, you go first, okay?"

"Erm, okay." Leahna said uncertainly, then sat down in the pilot's chair. "So, what do I do?"

"We're ready for take-off. So first you're gonna start the engines… press that button."

"Goofy, I think you and I oughta strap ourselves in." Scott suggested, chuckling as he teased Leahna. "We might crash before we even get off the ground."

"Hey, shut up!" Leahna smirked. "Just because you know how to drive doesn't mean you can do any better." She looked back at Donald. "Now what?"

"Don't worry about a thing. Now, take off the air brakes using that handle…"

"Okay."

"Now hold onto the steering wheel and push the lever for the throttle… there."

"Right." Leahna said, and suddenly the ship jerked forward. Scott, Goofy and Donald fell over as the ship stopped.

"Sorry!" Leahna apologized.

"We're all going to die." Scott said jokingly.

"HEY!" Leahna yelled at Scott, glaring at him. "That's right, I was picked first. I'm at the steering wheel, and if you don't shut up I'll make sure you WILL die." She grinned back at him. She saw Scott shut his mouth and she looked way as he strapped himself in again.

"Now, let's try again, and while you slowly push the throttle, pull back on the steering wheel." Donald said calmly, rubbing his head before he put his cap back on that had fallen off.

"Okay…" Leahna said. She did as Donald told her, and suddenly the ship rocked and vibrated as it blasted off into the sky. Out the corner of her eye, she saw Scott and Goofy hanging onto their seats for dear life.

"Slower, SLOWER!" Donald shouted. "HIT THE BRAKES!"

Leahna looked worried and did as she was told, putting the brake on. The ship slowed to a halt, and so did the scenery out the front window. They were in space. Leahna felt breathless as she saw the world of Traverse Town below them.

"Okay, a little bumpy but not bad. Larnie, now you and Scott swap seats. You're going to take us to the next world, Scott." Donald said.

"Great, now I know for sure we're going to die." Leahna teased, unstrapping her seat belt and stood up.

"Shut up." Scott answered back, matching her smirk as he passed her, and sat in the driver's seat. "So which way do we go?" he asked Donald.

"That's really assuring." Leahna said amusingly, strapping herself next to Goofy in Scott's seat.

"Shut up."

"You started it."

"You were asking for it." 

"Scott, concentrate." Donald said seriously. "See that big shiny line?"

Sure enough, out the window where Donald was pointing, there was a beam of light that connected to Traverse Town. The other half stretched out into space.

"Yeah, who could miss it?" Scott said obviously. "But what is it? A meteor belt or something?"

"Not sure." Donald said. "But we followed it here from the castle. It connects the worlds. Now, take off the air brakes, and push the throttle for the thrusters… _slowly_."

"Easy." Scott said, doing as Donald asked, a little shaky a first, but slowly the ship moved forward towards the line. "See Larnie? He asked for it _slowly_."

"That's how I'm going to kill you. _Slowly._" Leahna said back witfully.

"If it's anything like you drive, it'll be quick and painless."

"I don't care. You'll die either way, so I'm good."

Goofy and Donald laughed.

Leahna laughed, and after a while Scott did too. Leahna missed her family and close friends, but she was glad in this moment to be with Scott and her new friends. After a while of joking, talking and more teasing, something large appeared out the front window.

"It's the next world!" Scott said, making Leahna step over to look at it. "It's not ours, though."

"It looks random." she said amusingly. "Maybe the king is there."

"Get ready for landing!" Donald said, and pushed Scott out of the seat to land the gummi ship himself. "Here we go!"

A/N: Long chapter, but it's all had to be done! Next chapter is the first world, Wonderland! Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I do writing it!


	8. Chapter 7: Off With Their Heads!

"It's the next world!" Scott said, making Leahna step over to look at it. "It's not ours, though."

"It looks random." she said amusingly. "Maybe the king is there."

"Get ready for landing!" Donald said, and pushed Scott out of the seat to land the gummi ship himself. "Here we go!"

"Hey!" Scott called out, as Leahna watched him being pushed to the ground by Donald out of the pilot's seat. As he got up, she stepped past him and looked curiously out of the window. Being out in space was a once in a lifetime experience, one she might never experience again. Not in her wildest dreams did she ever think she would be on a spaceship about to land on another world. She watched as Donald took the controls as the spaceship flew over the world beneath them. Then suddenly the ship stopped.

"Why are we stopping?" she asked Donald.

"We have to protect the world order!" Donald quacked. "We can't have anyone find out about our ship, so we're gonna beam down. Ready?"

"Wait, what –" she tried to say, but Donald pushed a button, and there was a flash of bright light. The next thing she knew she was no longer standing, and the floor had immediately disappeared from underneath her feet. She was suddenly falling downwards, and the sudden change in gravity made her give out a small yelp.

Scott, who had been standing right next to her, also cried out in surprise as he suddenly realized he was no longer on solid ground. He reached out and took Leahna by the hand as a means of support, and Leahna squeezed his hand back tightly in response, thinking the both of them were about to hit the ground and get seriously hurt or killed. All of this happened within a second, until both of them realized, randomly enough, they weren't falling fast enough. In fact, they were floating.

"What the - ?" Scott asked the obvious, and suddenly Donald Duck went flying past him.

"I dunno, it must be the world's gravity!" Donald quacked, and laughed as he floated around. Goofy floated down next to them, so at peace while he was floating he was now sleeping.

Leahna let go of Scott's hand and swam forward. "Hey, this is cool." She laughed, and stretched her arms out as she got used to floating, looking like she was flying through the air.

"Hey, that does look like fun." Scott chuckled, and flew after her. "Tag, you're it!"

"Hey!" Leahna exclaimed, and flew after him.

As they fell down what appeared to be some sort of tunnel or hole, Scott and Leahna flew around in the strange gravity enjoying themselves. It was almost like swimming underwater, except without the cold and they didn't have to hold their breath. Finally they could spot the ground beneath them and knew their fun was over. Leahna smirked to herself, having won the game of tag as Scott hadn't caught her. She rolled her eyes as Scott as he taunted, "I'll get you next time." They and Donald lowered their legs beneath them to prepare for landing, and as they softly touched down on the ground, Goofy awkwardly tumbled on his belly as he crashed into the ground, waking up from his sleep. Since Goofy appeared to be unhurt, Scott and Leahna couldn't help but smile at each other as they suppressed themselves from laughing at him.

"Oh, my fur and whiskers! Oooh, oooh, I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date! I'm late, I'm late, I'm late! Oh, dear, oh dear, oh dear! I'm here, I should be there. I'm late, I'm late, I'm late! The queen, she'll have my head for sure!" came a small voice, and suddenly a white rabbit in clothing ran past them and through a door.

"Erm… was that a talking rabbit?" Scott said in confusion as he watched the small rabbit run off in the brightly colored room they had appeared in at the end of the tunnel.

"Yeah, but what's so strange about that?" Donald asked, as Goofy chuckled and picked himself up.

"It's a talking ani-" Scott began, and then looked at Donald. Donald looked at him blankly. "Uh, forget it."

Leahna stepped past them and moved towards the door the rabbit had disappeared behind, curious about where he went. As she did, she stepped from the rabbit hole into a room that looked like the inside of a house – it had a kitchen with a stove, a couch, a grandfather clock, as well as other pieces of furniture. And of course, on the other side, the door the rabbit had disappeared behind. It was the most random thing – as soon as she stepped towards it, the door seemed to shrink. She stepped backwards, and sure enough, the door grew bigger, but when she stepped forwards again it shrunk. "Look at this… big door, little door. Big door, little door." Leahna laughed, and Scott and the others laughed at it too. By the time she approached it, the door was so small that it didn't even look like Donald could fit into it.

"How did he get so small?" Leahna wondered, as Scott, Goofy and Donald caught up to her.

"No, you're simply too big." A voice said, and as if by magic the doorknob of the door suddenly came to life, its eyes and ears appearing from nowhere.

"It talks!" Donald exclaimed, shocked. Leahna couldn't believe what she was seeing. Scott's eyebrows were raised. Goofy's jaw had dropped, becoming speechless.

The doorknob closed its eyes and appeared to be going to sleep. "Must you be so loud? You woke me up."

"Good morning!" Goofy finally said cheerfully.

"Good night!" the doorknob huffed in reply, it's eyes half-closed. "I need a bit more sleep."

"Wait, uh, what do we have to do to go through the door?" Scott asked, still in disbelief he was talking to a doorknob.

"Why don't you try the bottle…" he paused to open his mouth, yawning, "… over there?"

Leahna looked over in the direction the doorknob looked, and suddenly a table rose up from the ground and on top of it, appeared two bottles. Leahna, Scott, Donald and Goofy walked over to take a closer look. One bottle was unmarked and had an orange label, while the other had a purple label. Leahna picked up the orange bottle and started taking off the lid.

"Whoa, hold on a sec!" Scott said warningly, snatching the bottle out of her hand.

"Hey, what was that for!?" Leahna asked annoyingly.

"A talking doorknob just tells you to go drink something out of a bottle that pops up from a table out of the floor, and you don't think that's weird?" Scott asked skeptically. "You don't even know what this is. It could be poisonous."

"Poisonous?" Leahna laughed at the idea. "Aren't you a bit paranoid Scott? Why would a doorknob be trying to poison us?"

"He doesn't exactly care that we were around. He might not know if it was toxic to us." Scott said. "Besides, this is a different world. I haven't seen any humans around here yet. Just because something's in a bottle, doesn't mean it's not harmful to us."

"Hmmm, maybe." Leahna said. "But what other choice do we have? It's the doorknob of the door the rabbit went in, it would know. How else do you think he got through the door? It was way too big for that rabbit."

"Let me drink it first." Scott suggested. "If it's poisonous, then you guys won't be in any danger."

"Okay then. I'll drink this one." Leahna said, picking up the purple bottle.

"Are you kidding me? No way. That one could be even more dangerous, purple's almost always means something's poison!" Scott refused and reached for the purple bottle.

Leahna pulled it away from Scott before he could snatch it off her again, looking disappointedly at him. "You can't drink them both, Scott, don't you know mixing drinks can be dangerous too?"

"Why don't both of you drink one of each?" Goofy offered a friendly compromise.

Leahna saw Scott looking at her, trying to make a decision. "I know you're trying to look out for me," she said convincingly, "…but you can't always be the hero, Scott. I don't like being treated like a kid, I can make my own decisions. You're just going to have to trust me."

Scott sighed in defeat. "Of course I trust you, it's what's in that bottle I don't trust. Okay, fine. But only a mouthful, okay?"

Leahna nodded. "Yeah, agreed."

"Let's drink at the same time." Scott offered. "Ready? One, two… three."

Scott drank from the orange bottle, and Leahna the purple. They looked at each other a moment, and then suddenly, Leahna watched as Scott started to shrink. He kept growing smaller and smaller, until he was about Jiminy Cricket's size. But for some reason, Scott was shrinking so much that the room, Donald and Goofy were shrinking with him. Her head was now reaching the ceiling, and then Leahna realized it wasn't the room that was shrinking, it was her growing bigger.

She grew so big, that he head was pushed uncomfortably into the corner of the ceiling, while the rest of her body cramped up into the tiny space of the room, her knees touching the ceiling as well.

"Ah… I think that one is supposed to make you bigger." Leahna said. "Can someone get the orange one for me?"

Scott squeaked something, but he was so small that Leahna could barely hear it, like the sound of a mosquito buzzing. In fact, she couldn't see him now anywhere at all. It wasn't until she saw Donald and Goofy that she could see Scott standing next to Jiminy on the ground next to them. "Here Larnie." Goofy smiled, and held up the orange bottle for her. Leahna picked up the tiny bottle out of Goofy's hand between her fingers and with little difficulty, sipped the bottle Scott had drunk from. The effects were immediate, and after a second mouthful, she kept shrinking until she came down level with Scott and Jiminy, looking at the smug look on Scott's face.

"For once, you were actually taller than me." Scott laughed.

Leahna furrowed her eyebrows at him, then grinned. "Haha." She laughed sarcastically, giving him a playful punch in the arm.

Once Donald, Jiminy and Goofy had drunken from the orange bottle, they looked up at the gigantic room around them, until at last they reached the door that was now their size. The doorknob, still asleep, swung backwards as the door opened from them, and they stepped out into sunlight. Now they were in some kind of hedge maze, with hedges trimmed into bizarre shapes of hearts, as well as various animals and club suit shapes. Leahna looked behind them, but the door that lead from the Bizarre Room swung closed behind them, and the sound of a door locking itself clicked from the lock.

"Look, there's that rabbit again!" Donald pointed, and saw the rabbit running off into the entrance of a courtyard.

"Remind me why we're following this guy again?" Scott asked as the group started moving quickly after him.

"If he's late for something, they might tell us where to find the king!" Goofy reminded him.

They turned into the entrance courtyard and found what looked like a courtroom that had been set up. There were podiums, for a judge, a witness and a secretary, and in front of it there appeared to be what looked like giant cards standing in front of the podiums like an audience. Looking closer, Leahna could tell the cards were actually alive, with heads, arms and legs, each holding a spear weapon like some kind of soldier. Two of these cards stood at the entrance near them as if on guard duty, but had not appeared to have seen them yet. But the most curious sight of all was standing in the place of the witness, where there was a young girl, with blue eyes, long blonde hair and wearing an old-fashioned blue and white dress. Leahna felt, just as she was sure everyone in the group did, that if they entered the courtroom they would draw the attention of the cards, so they watched as the white rabbit took his place at the secretary podium.

"Ahem! Court is now in session!" the white rabbit spoke aloud, casting a silence across the murmuring of the cards.

The young girl suddenly spoke up. "I'm on trial? But – why?" she asked.

The white rabbit seemed to ignore her. "Her majesty, the Queen of Hearts, presiding!"

Leahna watched as a short, obese woman wearing a crown and a red and black dress appeared at the top of the judge's podium. "The girl is the culprit!" she boomed suddenly as she waved a golden scepter at the girl. "And the reason is… because I say so, that's why!"

"That is so unfair!" the girl said defiantly.

"Well, have you got anything to say in your defense?" the Queen retorted.

"Of course!" Alice said incredulously. "I've done absolutely nothing wrong! You may be queen, but I'm afraid that doesn't give you the right to be so..." she paused to find the right word. "…so mean!"

"SILENCE!" the Queen roared, and several cards in the front row of the audience seemed to jump back in their seats. "You DARE defy _me_?" She glared at Alice.

"Well, if the shoe fits…" Alice said, crossing her arms defensively.

"You little ingrate! I've had enough! The court finds the defendant...guilty as charged!" the Queen sentenced callously. "For the crimes of assault and attempted theft of my heart..." she looked down at the cards. "Off with her head!"

A large card with a black hood and an axe strode into the court room, and two cards came and took Alice off of her podium. "No, wait, please!" Alice protested, as the executioner card put down a chopping block, which the cards holding Alice carried her towards.

"Guys, we should help her out!" Scott said alarmingly.

"Yeah, but the – " Donald paused, seeming to struggle with something.

"We're outsiders, so wouldn't that be muddling?" Goofy said, his hands over his face, as if he were about to shield his eyes from something he didn't want to see.

"Meddling!" Donald corrected him.

"Oh yeah!" Goofy realized. "And that would be breaking the rules…"

Leahna watched all of this, thinking about something the Queen said. _Theft of my heart... _She suddenlytook off into the courtyard.

"Leahna!" Scott called, and chased after her, alerting the slow-moving guards. Donald and Goofy followed after him.

"No, no, please!" Alice was now begging for her life, as the cards forced her to bend over and put her neck on the chopping block. The executioner card raised his axe…

"Hold on a sec!" Leahna called out as she stopped before the podium. Scott, Donald and Goofy caught up and stood next to her.

"Who are _you?_" the Queen of Hearts addressed them suspiciously. "How _dare _you interfere with _my _court?"

"Well excuse me," Leahna said defensively, "But I know who the real culprit is!"

"Uh huh, I get it!" Goofy realized. "It's the Heartle – " he stopped, and covered his mouth with his hands again, remembering he was supposed to maintain world order.

"Anyway, she's not the one you're looking for." Scott stated calmly.

"You will address me as your majesty and courtesy or bow to me!" the Queen said snobbishly. "And that is utter nonsense. Do you have any proof?"

"No, _your majesty_." Leahna said, expressing disdain towards her in the last four syllables of her sentence, and did a small courtesy, even though she was not wearing a dress. "But I think we can prove who did, if your majesty would give us some time."

"Oh really?" the queen said imperiously. "What an entertaining notion. And why should I allow you the time to collect any proof?"

There was a short moment of silence, as Leahna hadn't thought of what to say, before Scott stepped forward. "Excuse me, your majesty." Scott said, and made a deep bow, following Leahna's lead. "Not to question your _excellent _and _rational_ judgment, but if the proof points towards someone else that's more guilty of committing the crime, then your punishment could be that much more severe."

The Queen seemed to like the idea, as she made a sinister grin. "I see. Very well. GUARDS!" the cards holding Alice jumped. "Lock her in the cage!"

As the cards pulled Alice to her feet and locked her in a cage next to the Queen's podium that had previously been hidden by a curtain, the Queen looked down upon Scott and Leahna's group. "Bring me evidence of Alice's innocence! Fail… and it's OFF WITH ALL YOUR HEADS!"

Donald and Goofy gulped.

The queen smiled sweetly, as if she hadn't been barking at the top of her voice only seconds earlier. "Gather as much or as little evidence as you need. Report back to me by the end of the day when you are ready. Now, make your leave!"

"Court is now in recess!" the white rabbit squeaked when he realized it was his queue to speak, and the cards shuffled out of the courtyard.

"That queen is crazy," Scott said, and looked at Leahna, "…and not in a good way, either."

"Yeah," Leahna smiled. "So where do we start finding proof Alice isn't guilty?"

"Wait, what?" Scott asked. "From the way you were leading the conversation, I thought you thought of a plan."

"Yeah, but I was only improvising so Alice wouldn't get her head chopped off." she admitted.

"Well, why don't we actually go talk to Alice?" Goofy said hopefully. "Maybe she saw something that could point us in the right direction."

"Good idea, Goofy!" Donald quacked. "And we can ask about the king as well."

"Okay then." Leahna agreed, and Scott acknowledged with a nod. They walked over to the cage Alice was being held in.

Alice looked up as they approached and gave them all a hopeful smile. "Oh, thank you, thank you for coming to my rescue! I'm ever so grateful. My name is Alice."

"Hello Alice. My name is Leahna, and this is Scott, Donald and Goofy." Leahna introduced everyone respectfully.

"Nice to meet you all." said Alice, doing a little courtesy.

"There's no need for that Alice, we're not royalty." Scott waved a hand to modestly dismiss her gesture.

"Speaking of royalty though, have you seen the king?" Goofy asked.

"The king? Why yes, I did see the king." Alice nodded.

"You did!?" Donald quacked excitedly. "Where is he?"

"I believe after the croquet match, he – yes, I remember now, he said he would wait for the Queen of Hearts in their castle."

"His castle?" Goofy asked in confusion, looking at the stone tall castle in the distance.

"Yes, that's the King of Heart's castle." Alice nodded. "Nice little man, although he does let the Queen of Hearts boss him around an awful lot."

"Aww, we're looking for a different king." Donald sighed.

"Have you seen a little guy, with big ears like this?" Goofy asked, and he drew rounded ears above his head in the air for emphasis.

"No, I'm afraid not. I'm awfully sorry." Alice apologized.

After a moment, Scott said, "Nevermind, we'll find him on another world. Anyway, were wondering, did you see the crime the queen accused you of?"

"Why yes," Alice said, tilting her head to the side as she thought. "I was playing this strange version of croquet with flamingoes and hedgehogs, when I saw the queen being attacked. This shadow came out of the ground, as if it were alive, you see, and tried to snatch at the queen while she was lining up for a shot. I shrieked in surprise, and the shadow disappeared, so the queen thought it was me. It sounds silly, I know, but…"

"So it was a you-know-what!" Donald interrupted excitedly.

"I was thinking it was weird we hadn't seen any yet..." Scott wondered curiously.

"Alice, where did the shadow go?" Leahna asked.

"I'm not sure," Alice said glumly, but then perked up at the thought. "Oh, the Cheshire Cat might know!"

"Cheshire cat?" Scott repeated incredulously.

"Yes, he might know." Alice nodded. "I assure you, he's real. Ask him."

"Where can we find this Cheshire Cat?" Goofy asked.

"In the Lotus Forest. That's where I spoke to him last, before I got here." Alice said, pointing towards an exit in the maze that led to a dark green forest. "Try in there. Good luck, I'm counting on you!"

The group moved off and Alice waved after them. Leahna led the way into the Lotus Forest, looking around her all the random huge trees and mushrooms, wondering why they were so big, and then remembered that they were still small from the drink in the orange bottle.

"Hello?" Donald shouted at the forest around them.

"Cheshire Cat?" Goofy yelled after him.

"Hey, are you here?" Scott called, not surprised anymore that the cat probably understood English perfectly.

"Cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon…" Leahna decided to sing randomly to keep their spirits up, making Scott laugh, then he joined along.

"Poor Alice," came a voice from nowhere to interrupt them, making Leahna look around. Then out of nowhere a head of a cat appeared. "Soon to _lose her head_," he said amusingly, his head dancing at the words towards the body of a cat on a tree, until it sat back on the neck in the correct position. "And she's not guilty of a thing!"

"So you're the Cheshire Cat, huh?" Leahna asked the seemingly ghostly feline, although from the look of him it was hard to tell, as he wasn't transparent.

"The Cheshire Cat has all the answers," the cat said cryptically, "… but doesn't always tell. The answer, the culprit and the cat, all lie within the darkness." Then with a grin, the cat faded out of existence, leaving his silly grin behind, which vanished behind him as well.

"Hey, wait!" Scott called after it.

The cat reappeared in another tree, lying down lazily. "They've already left the forest. I won't tell you which exit." His head detached from his body, his body balancing a foot on his head in a balancing act. "There are four pieces of evidence for the four of you in all. Three are a cinch to find, but the fourth is tricky. Big reward if you find them all…" A box appeared next to him in the tree. Then he disappeared again, leaving behind his toothy smile.

"Can we trust him?" Donald wondered, looking at Leahna for a response.

But the Cheshire Cat beat her to it. "To trust, or not to trust? I'll trust you'll decide!" the teeth spoke, then the cat's mouth disappeared.

"Well, we might as well. We've got nothing else to go on." Scott shrugged, looking around as if the Cheshire Cat was going to reappear. But he didn't.

"Yeah." Leahna nodded. "Let's split up."

It took a while, but eventually they found them all; Donald got his from the box left in the tree by the Cheshire Cat; Goofy found his behind a large rock; Scott found one high up in a tree in the forest; and Leahna found the hardest one when she found a hidden passage in the forest inside a tree, which oddly enough lead back to a topsy-turvy Bizarre Room. The doorknob remained asleep, but now because the room had somehow flipped on its side, the door was on the wall - or they were, either way.

"I'd hate to make a map of this world. I'd go as crazy as the Cheshire Cat." Leahna heard Scott commenting as he shook his head, still in amazement of the place. Everyone else turned to leave, back to the forest, but Leahna noticed that Scott remained behind, ten steps behind her. "Scott? What is it?" she called to him, not wanting to leave him on his own.

Scott looked around him, before finally looking at her. "Nothing… I just thought I saw something… forget it." He walked over to join her.

"Maybe you are crazy… and not in a good way." Leahna said amusingly.

"Haha, very funny." Scott said back sarcastically, remembering he had said those words to her previously.

Leahna and the group took their boxes back to the Lotus Forest and called the Cheshire Cat again. While they waited, Scott and Leahna sang the cats in the cradle song again, laughing when they sung the parts where they couldn't remember the lyrics.

"Well, look what you found. Nice going." The Cheshire Cat said as he appeared on a tree branch, sounding impressed.

"Now we can save Alice." Scott smiled.

"Don't be so sure!" the Cheshire Cat answered him suddenly, wiping the smirk off Scott's face. "She may be innocent… but what about _you_?"

"What do you mean?" Leahna asked suspiciously, looking at Scott. Scott shrugged in confusion.

"I won't tell…" the Cheshire Cat teased waggling his eyebrows suggestively. "But here, I'll give you something." He clicked his fingers, and suddenly Leahna felt a chilly feeling inside her body. Scott shivered, as if he had experienced the same sensation. Donald did the same, but Goofy seemed unaffected.

"Behold, the power of ice magic!" the Cheshire Cat grinned. "When you see the shadows, tell them to chill with this cold spell. Now, you better be on your way, or else Alice may be decapitated by the Queen's impatience… so get to it, chop chop!" His head separated from his body again. "Hehehe..." With that, the cat's body disappeared, and then his head vanished with a loud popping sound.

With no time to waste, Leahna and the group made their way back to the gates of the Queen's castle, where the courtyard they had been in before was. The queen had returned to the podium and was looking rather bored, but luckily Alice was still in her cage, still looking alive but uncertain about the whole situation.

A red card stepped up before Leahna's group as they reproached the podium. "Are you ready to present the evidence before the queen?"

"Yeah." Leahna said confidently. She and the others had seen the evidence on their way from the forest in the boxes; one was a Heartless footprint, one was a Heartless clawprint, one was a photograph of a Heartless, and the last one was what appeared to be a shadowy substance that the Heartless were made from. Either way, they couldn't go wrong.

"Very well." The red card said pompously. "Counsel, step up to the podium."

"Yes, show me what you have found!" The Queen of Hearts said impatiently. Everyone placed the boxes on the table before the podium, and started to open them when the queen interrupted loudly. "Well, that's certainly a lot of evidence, but I'm still not impressed. Cards! Bring forth my evidence!"

The red card that had spoken before placed another box on the table, identical to the ones the Cheshire Cat had provided them. Leahna wondered if the Cheshire Cat had provided them one just for a laugh. Somewhere, Leahna imagined the cat chucking to himself.

"Hmm, checking all five would only be a waste of time." The Queen decided tiredly. "All right, then. Choose the one you wish to present. I'll decide who's guilty based on that evidence."

"What!?" Scott exclaimed. "After all that time we took to find them?"

"You dare object, _boy_? Then you will lose your _head_!" the Queen snapped. Leahna saw Scott shake his head. The Queen snorted. "Now, choose! One box!"

"You do it, Larnie." Scott encouraged her. "You found the hardest one, you deserve the credit. She'll have no choice but to agree Alice is innocent when she sees the Heartless shadow."

Leahna nodded. "Thanks." she said, and stepped forward, putting her hand on her box.

"Are you certain? No second chances!" the Queen warned.

"I'm sure." Leahna said confidently, not looking away from the Queen's gaze.

"Now we shall see who the real culprit is!" the Queen said greedily, as if she was about to eat delicious meal. Leahna held her breath and lifted the box off the lid.

Suddenly, a Heartless appeared. It jumped out of the box, and seeing who was around it, vanished into thin air.

The Queen looked shocked. "What in the world was _that?_"

"There's your evidence." Leahna said with determination, glad she didn't have to protect herself from the Heartless, and looked sternly at the Queen of Hearts. "Alice is innocent."

The queen made a groaning sound, as the cards behind Scott, Goofy and Donald started murmuring amongst each other in hushed conversation. "SILENCE!" the queen bellowed, and the cards went silent once more. The Queen pointed her scepter accusingly at Leahna and her group. "I'm the law here! Article 29: Anyone who defies the queen is guilty!"

"That's crazy!" Donald quacked.

"SEIZE THEM AT ONCE!" the Queen of Hearts roared furiously, having reached the brink of her temper. The cards jumped at the volume of their voice and started coming after them with their weapons. Alice shrieked from her cage as the curtains closed around it and it was raised into the air on an elevated platform. At the same time the elevated platform rose up, a tower rose up the middle of the courtyard with a crank on its side.

"CARDS! If they touch the Crank Tower, YOU LOSE YOUR HEADS!" she screamed.

"What do we do?" Goofy said worryingly as the card soldiers closed in.

"We gotta fight!" Donald exclaimed.

"Donald's right. Everyone, weapons!" Scott shouted, and drew his Keyblade.

Leahna drew hers, and the soldiers met them, brandishing their spears. Leahna swiped her keyblade at them and like a gust of wind, the cards were blown backwards from the blow, flying through the air comically.

"Leahna!" Scott called from nearby, "I'll cut the deck, you get through to the crank tower!" he grunted, caught in a savage duel locking blades with the black executioner card. She nodded to him, and she ran past Donald casting fire and ice magic, a flash of blue missing her ear by inches. The cards stepped in front of her and in formation formed a wall; then Goofy bowled through cards with his shield like a bowling ball knocking over bowling pins.

"Go Leahna, you can do it!" Goofy encouraged, holding off the card soldiers for her.

Leahna hit a card out of her way with her Keyblade and avoided another one that Goofy was attacking, until finally she reached the crank. She tried releasing the mechanism, but it wouldn't budge – so she gave it a few good whacks with her keyblade, and suddenly the crank was released and started spinning, lowering the platform Alice's cage was on to the ground.

Donald, who was closest to the cage, pulled back the curtain to release Alice. But when he did, he cried out, as the cage was empty. "She must have disappeared while we were fighting!"

"WHAT!?' the Queen of Hearts howled from her podium, halting her fierce commentary to the black executioner card to 'chop off that boy's head!' All the cards that were fighting froze to the spot. She saw the cage was empty and slammed down her scepter on the podium. "You fools! Find the one who's behind this! I don't care how!" she screamed at her card soldiers, and they retreated from the courtyard chaotically, leaving Leahna's group alone.

"Nice job, Larnie." Scott smiled as the black executioner card ran off, turning to her.

Leahna smiled and nodded. "We should go find Alice." She felt confused, though. How had Alice escaped from a locked cage?

"She must be in a whole lot of trouble now." Donald considered.

"I know! Let's go ask the Cheshire Cat where she is." Goofy suggested. So without much notice from the Queen or the cards, the group left in the confusion, and wondered back into the Lotus Forest until the Cheshire Cat appeared again, still grinning to himself as he looked down upon the group.

"You do all the walking we've done, then let's see if you're still smiling, kitty." Scott said, annoyed with the Cat grinning all the time, and wasn't in the mood for its games after the battle he had just been in.

"Have you seen Alice?" Donald changed the subject, not wanting Scott to seem ungrateful for all the help the Cat had been to them.

If the cat had taken offense to Scott's opinion, he didn't seem to notice. "Alice, no." he answered Donald. "Shadow, yes!"

"Where did they go?" Goofy asked, and Leahna thought Goofy agreed with her idea the Heartless had something to do with Alice's disappearance. It seemed suspicious, and there was no way she could get out of that cage without some help.

"This way? That way?" the cat said, bobbing his detaching head in the respective directions he had said. "Does it matter? Left, right, up, down!" His eyes followed the directions he had spoken this time, making him or anyone else watching feel dizzy. "All mixed up thanks to the shadows! You might find shadows in the Bizarre room!" Then he disappeared.

"Hey, come back!" Donald said. But the Cheshire Cat had gone.

"Aww damn, not more walking!" Leahna complained.

"If you're going to complain, then I'm going to have to carry you." Scott warned jokingly.

"Um no thanks, I can walk by myself." Leahna grinned.

"Okay then… tag, you're it!" Scott grinned, suddenly out of his tired mood, and ran towards the secret entrance Leahna had found earlier that led back to the Bizarre Room.

"No you didn't!" Leahna said mock offense, and chased after him. Donald and Goofy laughed and followed. Leahna chased after Scott into the Bizarre Room. She cornered him and they circled each other, until Leahna charged for him and tagged him on the back. "Tag, you're it!"

"No I'm not! You-didn't-get-me, you-didn't-get-me!" Scott taunted in a sing-song voice.

"Yes you are! I so got you! I win!" Leahna grinned.

"No you didn't."

"Yes I did."

"No you didn't."

"Yes I did!"

"Guys, we're supposed to be looking for Alice?" Goofy interrupted.

"Oh yeah." Scott said.

"Right." Leahna acknowledged. She looked around in the giant room and suddenly the Cheshire Cat appeared.

"You'll see the shadows soon." He hinted humorously. "They'll arise in this room, but somewhere else. The shadows might go after that doorknob, too."

"The doorknob?" Donald questioned.

"Maybe it's got a heart too, and the Heartless are tryin' to steal it." Goofy guessed.

"You'll have a better view from higher up." The Cheshire cat hinted, and as if hinting, the cat disappeared then reappeared up on the table Leahna and the others left the orange and purple labeled bottles, which were now huge thanks their smaller size.

"Now we have to climb?" Scott complained this time. "Damn cat, he doesn't have to do any climbing, does he?"

Leahna laughed a little. "Yeah, damn cat." She said, shaking her fist up at him. Scott laughed.

The group climbed up effortlessly to the table top, which wasn't as tall as it appeared to be, where the Cheshire Cat was waiting for them.

"Cheshire Cat, the Heartless better be up here! The pressure's on!" Leahna said humorously.

"Yeah! Or we'll make you disappear off the edge of this table-top." Scott joked.

The Cheshire Cat shook his index claw. "The shadows should be here soon. Are you prepared for the worst? If not, too bad!"

Suddenly it all happened at once. The Cheshire Cat disappeared, then a giant Heartless leapt down from the ceiling. It had to be a Heartless, because Leahna could recognize the Heartless symbol on its body. It looked like it was wearing a top hat where it's head should be, before Leahna realized from it's many blinking eyes that it had five checker-shaped heads stacked upon one another in a red-black-red-black-red pattern. It had long spindly arms and legs, and held a fiery staff. The Heartless blew fire from the staff as it fell down on top of the group, scorching the tabletop in flames.

Leahna ran out of the way, Scott the opposite direction; Donald and Goofy backed away from the Trickmaster as it bent down and whipped its long arms towards them. Donald cast an ice spell at the Heartless, fighting fire magic with ice. Trickmaster gave up and smashed its cane into Goofy, who blocked it, then whipped around and blew fire at Leahna and Scott. Leahna dodged out of the way, but Scott wasn't lucky enough. The fire caught on his sleeve and he dodge-rolled momentarily to put it out. Then the Trickmaster whipped his arms around while he was distracted and hit him off the tabletop.

"SCOTT!!!" Leahna screamed in horror after him, forced to watch him sailing through the air; for a split second he appeared to hang floating in the air as they did when they floated down the rabbit hole, and then he fell slowly backwards, like a big rag doll, over the table edge and out of sight.

Leahna whipped around furiously to look at Trickmaster, then ran towards him, Keyblade outstretched. Ducking under the fire it blew, she aimed for the Trickmaster's spindly legs, and slashed them with a furious rage.

The Trickmaster's legs buckled as it stepped backwards; without warning it fell off the table after Scott and out of sight. Donald, Goofy and Leahna went after it, wondering what had happened to Scott as well.

The Trickmaster's head appeared over the table-top ledge before they could look down, and suddenly it blew fire towards them: they all cried out in surprise as the fire came towards them at point-blank range.

There was a blast of ice and Heartless's spell was cancelled out; Scott appeared on the back of Trickmaster's head having cast the blizzard, then smashed his keyblade into the many heads. The Heartless buckled and fell silently to the floor again; then recovered and jumped into the underside of the table, knocking Leahna off, with Donald and Goofy with her. They landed roughly on the ground, and Leahna looked up as she picked herself up, watching Scott duel with the Trickmaster.

He was jumping up furiously to try and hit his Keyblade into the Trickmaster's many heads again, but the Heartless was blocking him. Donald and Goofy charged, Goofy throwing his shield into the legs, and Donald trying to freeze the Trickmaster's head; the Heartless seemed unaffected by both attacks and stepped towards Scott, near the table…

Leahna had an idea. While Scott was distracting the Heartless by shooting fireballs at it, she climbed up onto the chair seat, then jumped back onto the table. Running over the tabletop, she targeted the heads of the Heartless and shot first a fire spell, then an ice spell; none of them seemed effective. She had no choice, and she jumped off the tabletop, slashing her keyblade into its heads.

The hit was the final blow. Dropping like a lifeless puppet, Trickmaster fell to the ground, and dissolved into a giant heart; after the giant heart floated up into the air, it vanished. After everyone caught their breath, Scott stepped over to Leahna, smiling. "Woah, I didn't think you had it in you. Good work!" he complimented her.

"You're hurt." She noticed the burn mark on his arm.

"It's just a flesh wound." Scott shrugged, but it was obvious he was hurt.

"Even so, you need to treat it." Leahna shook her head, taking his arm. She felt a bit worried about him. "C'mon, let's go back to the ship so you can heal. I thought you almost got killed that time!"

"Yeah, but it wasn't that far a fall, you fell off the table too." Scott said modestly. "But… thanks."

"Yeah." Leahna nodded simply, pulling him along behind her. "After you're better, we'll try finding Alice again. I hope she's okay."

"I wonder where Alice is?" Donald wondered out loud.

"What a racket. How's a doorknob to get any sleep?" a familiar voice came, and everyone looked to see the Doorknob had woken up. As it yawned, they noticed something shiny come from the darkness within; it looked like a keyhole, just like the one Leahna had seen on the door, on the night of the storm…

Her Keyblade reacted and suddenly like a magnet, she held it up and a beam of light emitted from it, shooting out in a beam of light into the Doorknob's mouth, sealing the keyhole as it made a locking closed sound.

Donald looked amazed. "What was that?" he asked Leahna.

"I don't know… it just did it…" she said, looking weirdly at her keyblade.

"Did you hear it, though? It sounded like… your keyblade locked something." Scott said observantly.

He was distracted and Leahna looked with him; something small had fallen out of the keyhole in the Doorknob's mouth. Goofy and Donald, who were closer, stepped over to it.

"It's a Gummi piece!" Goofy recognized it. "This Gummi ain't like the others, no sir."

"Okay, I'll hold onto it." Donald said, picking it up. He jumped when suddenly the Cheshire Cat appeared on the chair seat to his right.

"Splendid. You're quite the heroes! If you're looking for Alice, she's not here." He disappeared, to emphasize his point tauntingly, then reappeared. "She's gone from this world! Off with the shadows, into darkness." Then he vanished.

"Hey, where is she? Come back!" Scott called. But the Cheshire Cat didn't appear again.

"No…" Leahna said disappointingly.

"Awww, don't worry." Donald said, "This ship runs on happy faces, remember? If she's been taken to another world by the Heartless, we'll find her."

"Yeah, I know we will!" Goofy said cheerfully. "Let's go back to the ship and get Scott healed up."

"Sounds great." Leahna heard Scott say, then he looked at Leahna. "Forget it, Larnie. We'll find her, she'll be okay."

"Yeah, she knows what she's doing." Leahna agreed, as Donald and Goofy led them back to the rabbit hole, where the Gummi Ship lay waiting for them. Already they had lost a new friend, and her Keyblade shining a light into that keyhole made her wonder what it was all about. But Leahna was confident Alice could fend for herself, hoping that the next world that they landed on would be hers and Scott's home…

A/N: Well there it is, what I've been working on the past week or so, hoped you liked it! I wanted to get Wonderworld done in one chapter and I tried to change the script around a bit and make it funny as well as dramatic. Please review, hope you had fun reading it!


	9. Chapter 8: Finding the Light

"Yeah, she knows what she's doing." Leahna agreed, as Donald and Goofy led them back to the rabbit hole, where the Gummi Ship lay waiting for them. Already they had lost a new friend, and her Keyblade shining a light into that keyhole made her wonder what it was all about. But Leahna was confident Alice could fend for herself, hoping that the next world that they landed on would be hers and Scott's home…

A few hours later, Scott woke up in his room on the Gummi Ship, and slowly got dressed. He had dressed down the night before when they had taken off from Wonderland, after taking his shift driving the Gummi ship. Now fully changed in his regular clothing, he yawned as he stepped out through the sliding doors of his room and into the cockpit.

"Good mornin'!" Goofy greeted him from the pilot's chair.

"Morning." Scott smiled, feeling cheerful. "Are we there yet?"

"Yup. The next world's coming up right now!" Goofy pointed out the window.

Scott leaned forward and looked out the window. The world was all cloudy and had lots of rivers, but no oceans. It didn't look anything like his world.

"Well, we might as well go down and check if the King's there." Scott shrugged.

"Morning!" Donald Duck quacked as he entered. "Oh boy, I hope he is."

"Hey." Leahna said as she emerged from her room too. "Where are we?"

"I dunno." Scott shrugged. "But it's not our world."

"We're landing, so let's go find out! Everyone ready?" Goofy said. Everyone nodded, and Goofy pressed a button. They teleported down to the world's surface, and after the light faded away, Scott looked around.

The area they were in was a courtyard in front of a large building. There were giant statues of men in gladiator costumes pointing their swords into the air. Behind them, a large door with chains locking the handles blocked their path to the south. The courtyard had tall walls on either side with scoreboards on them, but no doors.

"Guess the only way is forward." Donald assumed, stepping towards the building in front of them that looked like an acropolis.

Scott saw the large sign above the door that read:

OLYPMUS COLLOSEUM

Leahna reached the door first and led them inside. They had entered a small lobby with torches lighting the room. Ahead of them was another door, and on both sides of the room were empty shelves and a pedestal on either side. Standing near one of these pedestals was a satyr, a mythical Greek half-man, half-goat creature. He reminded Scott of a short, fat, Mr. Tumnus from the Narnia books.

"Erm…" Leahna said, sounding unsure how to talk to a mythical creature.

"Good timing. Give me a hand, will ya? Move that pedestal over there for me. I gotta spruce this place up for the games." The satyr gestured to them, without even turning around to look at them.

"Um… okay." Scott said awkwardly. "Maybe after that, you could tell us if you've seen someone we're looking for?"

The satyr, working on fixing one of the trophy shelves, didn't reply.

"Gawrsh, maybe he'll listen to us after we do it." Goofy said quietly.

"Okay… but I'm not doing anything else until we find out about the king!" Donald agreed.

They all started pushing the massive stone pedestal nearby in the direction the satyr had pointed, but it wouldn't move.

"There's no point, it's too heavy." Leahna sighed exhaustingly.

"Hey, there's no way we can move this thing!" Scott called over to the satyr.

"What? Since when have you been such a little…" the satyr started saying as he turned around, then stopped in mid-sentence when he saw the group. "Oh, wrong guy. What are you doing here? This is the world-famous Colosseum – heroes only!" He stepped up to Donald, who was about the same height as him. "And I got my hands full preparing for the games. So run along, pip-squeaks."

"Speak for yourself, short-round." Leahna shot back at him smugly.

"Okay, hold on a sec. We didn't come here to argue, we came here to look for the king." Scott reasoned, looking at the satyr. "Have you seen him?"

"Little guy, with big ears?" Goofy added.

"Ain't seen anyone like that. Like I said, three words for ya – heroes only!" the satyr told them.

"Don't you mean two words?" Leahna laughed.

"Look, I don't have time for this. Scram, all of yer." The satyr said angrily, pointing towards the door.

"Fine, let's go." Donald gave up, heading for the door.

"Wait a second guys, look at this." Scott gestured them over, looking at a flyer that the satyr had put up. It read:

HERCULES CUP

_Come see the great hero defeat deadly monsters and new challengers! _

_Plus a new challenger from another world makes an appearance!_

_To sign up ask Philoctetes. Do you dare take on the son of Zeus?_

"A new challenger from _another world. _It might be someone from our world." Scott suggested.

"Maybe." Leahna said hesitantly.

"Still, it's worth checking out." Scott considered. He turned to Donald and Goofy. "What do you say guys? Are you up for a little competition?"

"Well, why not?" Goofy said cheerfully. "If it's someone from your world, you guys won't have come down here for nothing."

"Yeah, we're heroes!" Donald said. "We have to play, there could be Heartless in this world."

"So what do you say, Larnie? Are you in?" Scott smiled at first, but saw Leahna's expression was still hesitant.

"I don't know… I don't think my mum would want me fighting monsters if I had a choice…" Leahna considered.

"You could just sit out in the audience if you want and watch us." Scott shrugged. "That way you won't get hurt and your mum won't berate you. I guess this team is only going to have boys in it."

"What's with the attitude? You're not being sexist, are you?" Leahna crossed her arms as she looked disappointedly at Scott.

"What? No!" Scott said defensively. "I didn't say anything like that. At least, I didn't mean to."

"Well, it sounded sexist if you meant it or not." Leahna told him. "Well, I've changed my mind. My mum would want me to try and find any way I can get home. If this person from another world is from our world, I have to find out as much as I can. So I owe it to her to join the games. And that way, I can show I can fight just as well as you guys can."

"I never said anything like that. You know better than anyone that I treat women equally, in fact even more so. But okay, good." Scott nodded. "Let's leave it at that and go sign up at the games."

"Okay. Good." Leahna said, joining the boys as they stepped up to the satyr. "Hey, are you… how do you say this? Phil-oct-et-es?"

"Just call me Phil." Phil said simply. "I thought I told you shrimps to vamoose."

"We want to sign up for the games." Leahna stated.

"You want to sign up?" Phil said incredulously. "Look, it's like this. Heroes are coming all over to fight ferocious monsters here in the colosseum."

"We're heroes!" Donald exclaimed.

"Yup." Goofy agreed, stepping between Scott and Leahna, putting his hands on each of their shoulders. "They're real heroes, chosen by the keyblades."

"And we're heroes, too!" Donald quacked proudly.

"Hero? Those runts? Ahahahahaha!" Phil laughed.

"What are you laughing at, goat-face?" Leahna snapped back at him defensively.

"Yeah, me and Larnie have fought and destroyed a bunch of giant monsters!" Scott backed her up.

"Hey, look, two words for you guys. You ain't heroes." Phil said stubbornly, displaying his quirky inability to count again. "If you can't even move this pedestal…" he demonstrated, putting his hand on the pedestal the group had tried to move earlier, then attempted to push it. "You can't call yourself…" Phil spoke between grunts, pushing the pedestal but making no progress, "… a hero!" He finally stopped pushing, panting and drawing in deep breaths. "Okay, so it takes more than brawn. Why don't you start by mastering one of Zeus's simple spells?"

Phil pointed his fingers at Scott and Leahna, and suddenly Scott felt the hairs stand up on the back of his neck, like he had been given a mild stock of static electricity.

"Hey! What was that?" Scott questioned Phil.

"The power of lightning." Phil explained. "If you can't master that, then don't bother coming back. Now, go target practice and get out of here! Come back later. I got things to do."

"But – " Donald started.

"I said, get out! And don't come back without any practice unless you've got passes to the games! See you!" Phil stubbornly told them, pushing them out to the courtyard again. He slammed the door behind them once he had forced them out of the lobby.

"Aww, damn." Leahna said.

"Now what?" Scott wondered. "I guess we'll have to practice the spell like Phil said."

"What a stubborn old goat, wouldn't you say?" came a sly voice from literally out of nowhere. Scott looked all around the courtyard, but saw no-one.

"Who's there?" Scott called. "Show yourself."

A cloud of dark grey smoke exploded before them out of nowhere, and then it cleared, it revealed a figure. The man was not human, shown clearly by the blue flames burning on top of his head, and yellow eyes. He had a long face with a pointy nose and wore a smile with his jagged, decaying teeth. He had dark grey, almost near-dead looking skin, and long yellow fingernails. He wore a black toga with robes around his mid-section, which trailed along the ground near his feet as he walked towards them.

"God powers… gotta love that." the man commented humorously.

"Who are you?" Donald questioned.

"Who am I? Hey, someone get this duck a history scroll." The man joked. "Let me introduce myself. I am Hades, the god of the Underworld!"

"A god!?" Donald said curiously, moving in for a closer look.

"Whoa, hold on there, fuzz boy." Hades halted him, moving around the group. "Wait, let me guess. You want to enter the games, right?" He put his hand on Leahna's shoulder, making Scott feel a sudden, strange uneasiness in his stomach. Before he could say anything, Hades jumped in. "Well, then, hey, pretty little lady, get a load of this."

Then in a puff of smoke, an entry pass appeared in his hand in front of Leahna.

"What's this?" Leahna said, a little confused.

"A pass for the Hercules Cup." Hades explained. "Go on, take it. It's on the house. It'll cover the four of you."

"Okay, wait a sec. What's the catch?" Scott said, hesitant about a gift being pressured upon Leahna.

"No catch. I felt like entering, but I felt my god-like powers might be too much for the competition, you know?" Hades elaborated. "It's all yours. Good luck kids. I'll be pulling for you, little shorty." he spoke down to Leahna, then disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving the pass in her hands.

"Haha." Leahna laughed sarcastically, but Hades was gone.

"You heard him. Cmon, little shorty." Scott teased to Leahna.

"Well I am. I'm only little." Leahna accepted the taunt and shrugged as they entered the lobby. "Hey Phil, we've got a pass now."

"Hey, how did you get this?" Phil asked, taking the pass and examining it.

"Forget about it. Can we enter the games now?" Scott asked, hoping to avoid the subject they had been talking to a god of the underworld.

"Well… alright. I guess so." Phil finally accepted.

"Oh boy!" Donald squealed.

"You're still not heroes though." Phil eyed Donald.

"Awwww…." Donald sighed.

"We'll start with the preliminaries! Ready for the preliminaries?" Phil asked the group.

"Ready as we'll ever be. Let's do this." Scott looked at the others, who nodded at him, then he nodded at Phil.

"Alright. But I gotta warn ya, some real weirdos signed up for the games. You better watch yourself." Phil advised, and led them into the battle arena. "Alright, according to the chart, you'll be fighting these guys."

Scott stared across the battle arena and suddenly felt on edge when he saw their opponents. They were tiny little wizards with pointed hats, red little cloaks and the symbol of a black heart with a cross at the bottom. Instantly they started shooting fireballs at them.

"Heartless!" Goofy cried.

Everyone got out their weapons and fought the new Heartless, the Red Nocturne. Five minutes later, they had won, only suffering a few small burns from fireballs.

"You're no heroes yet, but you ain't doing bad." Phil said admiringly as they came off the battle area to rest before the next battle. "Lucky you came to me for coaching."

Scott and Leahna smirked and shared a glance with each other. They knew their skills had nothing to do with Phil's 'coaching'.

Then they heard footsteps, and Scott looked over to see a man walk past them. He was the first actual human they had seen sight of since they had first come here. He had blonde, spiky hair and piercing blue eyes. He wore a crimson cape, that looked burnt and frayed at the edges. He wore a metal shoulder pad, bracelets, and a claw over a fingerless glove on his left arm, and only a black arm band and the other matching fingerless glove on the right. His torso was covered with a sleeveless blue jumpsuit, which had brown leather straps bracketed by a silver ring leading down in a Y-shape from his shoulder to a series of looping belts which reminded Scott of Leon's. The symmetrical outfit continued, with him wearing a silver leg brace around his left thigh, and samurai torso armor on his right, and again on his lower legs where he wore two silver rings on each leg, looping over each over in a cross fashion. He wore brown boots and in his right hand, he carried a massive broadsword, wrapped in bandages. The blonde man looked silently at them as he walked past them.

"Something tells me that guy will be a tough one to beat." Phil remarked as the man walked away. "Who knows, you might even end up fighting him."

"Is he the guy that came from another world?" Scott asked Phil curiously.

"Yeah. Okay, you guys are up for the next round!" Phil said, as Heartless began appearing in the area, this time with giant fat bodies and small heads.

They fought the Heartless again, this time discovering the Heartless, called Fat Bodies, were completely invincible to their weapons as they kept bouncing off every attack. But their heads and their backs were their weak points, and after ten minutes they scored another victory.

"You ain't bad, kids!" Phil commented as Scott, Leahna, Donald and Goofy walked off the battle arena tired but victorious. "I just wish he was here to see this."

"Who?" Leahna asked.

"Hercules." Phil replied. "Now, he's a hero if I ever saw one. Too bad he's off visiting his father Zeus in Mt. Olympus."

Scott nodded, and walked off to stretch his legs. As he walked past the dark entrance where the next challengers appeared from, he thought he heard a haunting voice calling t him.

_Scott…_

"Who's there?" Scott called out into the darkness. He looked through the dark entrance, but saw no-one. It seemed strange. He thought he felt the same presence as he did back in Wonderland… and the voice sounded familiar somehow. He shook it off. He must have been tired from the last battle.

A few minutes later, Phil approached them. "Next up, you face… him." he said after they had rested up, and looked in the direction Phil had pointed. The blonde man with the large sword from before was standing there.

"All four of us facing him at once? Is he that tough?" Goofy asked.

"We'll find out soon enough. Let's begin!" Phil shouted as they walked back into the battle arena.

"Hey." Scott greeted the man. "I'm Scott. And this is Larnie, Donald and Goofy."

The man did not say anything, and quietly looked at the ground.

"What's your name?" Leahna asked him uncertainly.

"Cloud." The man simply said, readied his sword. Suddenly he shocked everyone when a black, evil-looking demon wing spread out threateningly from his left shoulder, and then, he attacked. He yelled out a battle cry and thrust his sword forward in the blink of an eye, moving with it as energy exploded outwards from the blade. Donald cried out as Cloud charged through him and Goofy with the move, knocking Donald out cold. Goofy protected himself with his shield, but Cloud jumped into the air and thrust his sword into the ground, creating an energy shockwave, quickly knocking out Goofy as well. "Donald! Goofy!" Scott called, but they were way out of it.

Scott kept his distance between himself, Cloud and Leahna, making sure he was within a few steps to step in to help if Cloud targeted Leahna next. Instead, Cloud attacked Scott, coming for him with the Sonic Jab technique. Scott anticipated and used the Dodge Roll technique Goofy had taught him to dodge his attacks. Cloud seemed to grow impatient and suddenly changed targets, using his Sonic Jab technique towards Leahna. Leahna dodged out of the way as well and attacked when Cloud had finished, but Cloud was ready, blocking her keyblade and countering her attack with another Sonic Jab. Leahna was pushed aside from the blast of the attack onto the ground.

"LARNIE!" Scott cried out in concern, and reacting to pure emotion, ran forward and attacked Cloud to protect his friend. Cloud reacted quickly in the same way, parrying Scott's keyblade attacks and countered with another Sonic Jab. Scott cried out in pain and fell to the ground. Was it over?

Scott saw Larnie was hurt, but she was getting up. She still had some fight left in her. Scott still had some fight in him too, and started to get up when Cloud jumped in the air to do his shockwave attack. Scott dodge-rolled, Cloud's attack missing him by inches. Larnie came to Scott's aid and attacked Cloud from behind, and this time she was successful, striking him when he was still recovering from pulling his sword out of the ground. It gave Scott an idea on how he and Larnie could win.

Cloud started his Sonic Jab technique again, intent on landing a hit on Scott. Scott kept dodging whenever Cloud gestured to make the attack, waiting for him to use his shockwave attack. But Cloud kept using Sonic Jab, chasing after him. Scott realized what he had to do, and it had to be convincing. As Cloud suddenly changed targets and closed in on Leahna, and she dodged him, Scott waited for the right moment. When Cloud ued Sonic Jab again towards Leahna standing still, who was anticipating his attack, Scott ran in and protected her with a block from his Keyblade. Leahna became surprised for a moment, and did not move as she watched Cloud drive his sword through Scott's defense, the sheer power of the attack knocking him to the ground. Then Cloud finally used his shockwave attack.

Scott and Larnie both dodged the shockwave. Cloud recovered, pulling his sword out of the ground.

"NOW!" Scott shouted, attacking the defenseless Cloud with his keyblade. Leahna attacked as well, and both hit their keyblades into Cloud. Cloud staggered to one knee, supporting himself from falling over with one hand.

"You win." Cloud said simply, after catching his breath.

"Wow. You're really cool, Cloud." Scott smiled. "I had a lot of fun fighting you."

Cloud didn't say anything, and clutched his chest.

"Mmmhmm." Leahna murmured at Cloud's lack of words, smiling a little, then looked at Scott. "You didn't have to protect me. I knew when to attack him, btw. You didn't have to tell me."

"I had to make it convincing I was letting him get a hit, or he wouldn't have let his guard down. And sure I didn't…" Scott teased humorously.

Leahna scowled at him. Then she laughed. Scott laughed too. Then Donald and Goofy, having recovered, came to join them.

"Cloud, can you get up?" Scott asked, offering him a hand. He never got to help him up, as suddenly a giant black shape jumped into the arena out of nowhere, and grabbed Cloud in a whirlwind of white teeth. Cloud cried out in pain and dropped his sword. I wasn't until Scott jumped backwards and looked up at the giant creature that he got a good look at the creature. It was a giant black dog, but it had three heads instead of one. It had red eyes and rows of deadly sharp teeth.

Suddenly there was a puff of smoke, and Hades appeared at the side of the arena. "Cloud, I'm disappointed in you. You didn't make them collateral damage like we agreed upon, but either way, there's one less of you heroes to deal with. Oh, right, there was one other rule I forgot: accidents, happen." He laughed, and then disappeared in another puff of black smoke.

"It's Cerberus!" Phil cried in panic. "The guardian of the Underworld. Get out of there, squirts!"

Cerberus moved forward, its jaws drooling as the other heads snapped down towards the group.

Suddenly a figure jumped in and in one single move, pushed back Cerberus out of the battle arena. It was a man, with golden blonde short hair and blue eyes. He wore a red headband to keep his hair out of his eyes, a cape and a gladiator outfit with belt and sandles.

"Herc!" Phil called in surprise.

"Phil, get them out of here!" Hercules told him as he struggled to hold Cerberus back.

"What? No way!" Scott refused. "We can still fight."

"Yeah." Larnie agreed, a little hesitantly.

"This ain't just some match kids. This is for real!" Phil reminded them.

"Well then, it can be a test to prove if we're real heroes or not, won't it?" Scott said stubbornly.

"You got guts, kid. Be careful!" Phil warned.

Hercules lifted up Cerberus by the neck, plucking out Cloud from its teeth. He threw Cerberus with one hand and slung the unconscious cloud over his shoulder, making a run for it.

"Kids, I got two words for you: ATTACK!" Phil yelled as Cerberus came running back towards them, making Phil run for cover.

Cerberus snapped his jaws towards them, and everyone dodged out of the way. Donald quacked and shot a fireball spell towards it, but it had no effect, as it only seemed to enrage the beast. Cerberus shot fireballs back, and everybody dodged it.

Leahna jumped up and started whacking at Cerebus's head with her keyblade, from the side where Cerberus couldn't bite her. She got in a few shots, before Cerberus realized one of it's heads were getting hurt and snarled, stomping it's feet down towards her. She was struck and hit the ground hard. Cerberus quickly followed up by shooting fireballs at her and the rest of the group. Scott dodged them as he ran to Leahna's aid, gritting his teeth fiercely as Leahna cried out in pain as the fireballs hit her while she was down and scolded her skin.

"Larnie!" Donald sqwarked and shot spell towards her. A flower appeared in mid-air above her and bloomed; instantly the Cure spell made her burns disappear. Cerberus however stood over Larnie and lunged at her with all three heads to bite her.

"NO!" Scott screamed and leapt in front of the way. Leahna watched again as Scott took a hit for her, Cerberus biting down hard into Scott's torso and lifted him high into the air.

"Hold on!" Goofy cried and charged forward with his shield, but was knocked back from Cerberus stomping in front of him.

Leahna got up and ran behind Cerberus as Scott grunted in pain, Cerberus's large teeth impaling his body. He attacked the middle head which held him, smashing his keyblade into it. Leahna suddenly appeared and whacked her Keyblade into the same head. "Let him go!" she seethed through clenched teeth, and finally Cerebus dropped him. He landed painfully on his back, and as Cerberus tried to shake Leahna off, Scott felt himself healed by Donald's Cure spell. He got back up, jumping away from Cerebus's feet, and slammed his keyblade several more times into Cerebus's middle head with Leahna, who was fighting furiously to keep the other two away from her. The giant dog let out a defeated groan and slumped to the ground on its side, sending up a big cloud of dust.

Scott ran forward through the cloud, looking for Leahna. As the dust settled, she appeared heroically from Cerebus's side.

"Are you okay?" Scott asked.

"Yeah. How about you?" Leahna said.

"Yeah, I think so." Scott clutched his chest, where Cerberus had bit him, then looked up at her. "I'm glad you're okay."

"You didn't have to protect me." She said as she looked at him.

"I didn't want you to get hurt again." Scott said simply.

"Okay." Leahna nodded.

"We did it!" Donald cried.

"Hooray!" Goofy cheered.

Later, they were in the lobby, and stood in a line in front of Phil as he read from a parchment. "Thus, I do hereby dub thee junior heroes, and confer upon thee full rights and privileges to participate in the games. Further—"

"Hey, what do you mean, "junior heroes"?" Donald interrupted.

Phil looked smug. "You rookies still don't understand what it takes to be a real hero."

"So, what does it take?" Goofy questioned curiously.

"Well, that's just something you'll have to find out for yourselves. Just the way that I did." Hercules said, as he entered the lobby.

"Hey Hercules." Scott greeted. "No problem. We'll start by proving ourselves in the games."

"There ain't gonna be any games for a while." Phil broke the news, shaking his head. "Gotta clean up the mess from the last battle first."

"Okay, then we'll visit again sometime. Bye." Larnie said, and the group exited into the courtyard to get back to the Gummi ship. Once they had stepped back outside, Scott saw Cloud, recovered from his injuries.

"Hey Cloud." Scott called to him. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Cloud shrugged.

"That demon wing you have, you're not from our world, are you?" Leahna questioned.

"No." Cloud told her, without making a single movement.

"So, that creep Hades," Leahna started, "Why did you want to make a deal with him?"

"I'm looking for someone." Cloud explained, surprising everyone as he kept talking. "Hades promised to help me. I tried to exploit the power of darkness, but it backfired. I fell into darkness, and I couldn't find the light."

"You'll find it." Scott encouraged, feeling Cloud wasn't a bad guy, but that he had simply been used. "We're searching, too."

Cloud looked up, looking directly at him and Leahna. "You too? Don't lose sight of it." He walked between them, and as he did, he put a hand on each of their shoulders. Scott felt a power being awakened in him, and from the surprised look on Leahna's face, he could tell she felt the same sense of power, too.'

"What was that?" Scott asked Cloud as he turned around.

"You're good kids. And Keyblade masters. I gave you some of my power." Cloud explained without going into detail. "Now you do Sonic Jab too."

"Hey Cloud, do you want a rematch sometime? Without any powers of darkness." Scott asked.

Cloud paused with his back turned to them. "I think I'll pass." he said finally, and then left.

Scott smiled as he watched Cloud walk away in awe. "He's so cool. And awesome." he said.

"Yeah, he's okay." Leahna shrugged. "But Hercules is stronger. He held back Cerberus for us, Cloud didn't." 

"Yeah, but Cloud was just weak from us beating him. He could have handled Cerberus no problem. I bet he could beat Hercules if he wanted."

"No I don't think so. Hercules would break his sword, he's stronger. Ner ner." Leahna teased, grinning.

"No way! Cloud is faster. He'd dance circles around Herc. He's cooler too, so there."

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

"Is too."

"Is too!"

"Is n- hey!" Scott said.

They all laughed, and then went back to the ship. They hadn't found the king in Olympus Colosseum, and Cloud hadn't turned out to be from their world. But they had become "junior heroes" and made some new friends. Hopefully they would have better luck in the next world.


	10. Chapter 9: The Island

They all laughed, and then went back to the ship. They hadn't found the king in Olympus Colosseum, and Cloud hadn't turned out to be from their world. But they had become "junior heroes" and made some new friends. Hopefully they would have better luck in the next world.

The old, stale air of the underground within the monstrous cavern was disturbed as a tall figure appeared in a puff of smoke from nowhere. The light flickering from the fire burning alight from the flaming Olympic god of the underworld cast a sudden flash of light in the dark, highlighting the fog that had been cast within the shadows. A groan resounded from the cavern below the rocky underground lair, as if the dead themselves had been awakened, then all at once fell silent once more as the blue light turned a fiery red and a sudden slam of the god's clenched fist fell down hard on the arm of his throne.

"He's strong, he's kind." said Hades at first in a mocking voice of admiration, looking at the toy figure of Hercules, the hero of Olympus, held in his hand. "He's always there for you, and he's handsome to boot. He's perfect. Perfect." His voice grew angry as the living flame on is body cracked and hissed in unison with his voice. "Perfectly infuriating! He makes me crazy!"

He looked at the lifeless statue of Hercules, the stillness and silence his only reply, and he calmed down as a thought occurred to him. "Wait a minute. What are you talking about? All the pieces are in place. Relax. Here's what you do. Let Hercules train the kids. In the next games…"

The wooden idol of Hercules suddenly ignited at his touch, and burned to ashes. A slight snicker resounded from Hades's lips as the ash spilled into a small pile on the floor.

"…I'll take care of them all." He turned, noticing a shifting in the shadows within his chambers, too big to be his demonic servants Pain and Panic. "Who invited you to the party? Stay out of this. This is my show." He said to the witch who had appeared, who's face remained in the shadows.

"As you wish. Fight to your heart's content." Said the witch, who grimaced wickedly herself, and disappeared back into the darkness.

Scott was at the controls of the Gummi ship, watching the vastness of space as he steered the ship towards the next world.

"That's it… keep it steady." Donald instructed from a chair nearby.

Leahna stood up from her seat nearby and walked towards the window. "Hey, it's the next world."

Down below was a world with an island covered in dense, green jungle surrounded by a vast ocean.

"Hey Donald, maybe King Mickey's down there." Goofy said.

"On that backwater planet like that? No way!" Donald refused. "Let's move on Scott."

"Hold on, my family and my friends could be down there." Leahna said. "Let's just check it out."

"It wouldn't hurt, it's not like we're in a rush or anything… but Donald might be right, we could be wasting our time."

"Yeah whatever, I really don't care anymore. I really don't. I've had enough of fighting Heartless, I just want to go home." Leahna said curtly, moving forward to take the controls. "Scott, move." 

"No, wait." Scott said. "I know how you feel, but we can't argue, let's just stop and…"

"No!" Donald quacked and grabbed hold of the other side of the steering wheel, making the ship lurch and Goofy fall out of his seat.

"Donald, wait! I'm flying the ship, and we're not landing! Let's just sort things out first!" Scott pulled the controls away from the both of them.

"Yes we are! Come on!" Leahna said irritably at Scott. She pressed a button on the control panel now the ship had shakily come into landing over the planet.

"Don't touch that! Nooooooooooooo!" Donald said.

There was a blinding flash of white light, and suddenly the Gummi ship lurched forward and shook. Suddenly the controls started flashing strangely as a strange static sound was heard across the ship.

"What's going on!? We're flying blind!!!" Donald squawked.

"Look out!" Goofy cried as he pointed out the window from where he had fallen on the floor.

A 747 passenger plane immediately appeared out of nowhere from beneath them, and Scott pulled back on the controls to avoid it, but it was too late. The gummi ship slammed into the side of the plane that read 'Oceanic' between the wings and the tail of the plane. The plane violently broke apart, and Scott watched in horror as the tail broke off, sending luggage and passengers out the plane and into the sky. The gummi ship was hooked on the wing of the plane as it dove steeply downward, and then heard screaming as the Gummi ship started breaking apart.

"Get in your seats!" Scott yelled to everyone as they quickly strapped themselves in, as he hopelessly tried to steer the Gummi ship away from the plane that was racing down towards the beach, but it was no use. The last things he saw racing by were clouds, sky, the ocean, the plane, and finally sand flying up as they hit the coastline…

…and then, darkness.

Scott woke up to the sound of fire crackling and screaming. Realizing he had been thrown out the Gummi ship from his seat and been knocked out cold, he got up and started looking around.

"Larnie! Donald! Goofy!" he called. He could now hear other people yelling and calling for other people's names as he ran into the wreckage of the passenger airliner that had crashed.

A blonde girl in pink was screaming her head off as Scott ran up to her. "Are you okay?" he asked her, but she kept on screaming and crying. "Hey, screaming pink!" Scott yelled louder, to get her attention. But it was no use. She was obviously in a state of shock.

An Asian man ran up to him and pulled him away with a hand on his shoulder. He spoke in a language that Scott didn't understand. "What? I don't understand…" he tried to say, shaking his head, but the man gave up and ran off.

Leahna woke up. She saw the sky and the trees above her, then realized she was on her back. She got up, suddenly remembering what had happened. What had happened to the others? Scott? Donald? Goofy?

She heard movement in front of her, and saw a young woman with wavy brown hair and brown eyes in a white shirt and khaki pants. She was squatting down on the leafy jungle floor. The woman noticed she was there and looked up suddenly in alert, looking suspicious as she rubbed her wrists slightly with her hands

"Are you okay?" Leahna asked her.

"Yeah." The woman said innocently.

"Have you seen my friends? Scott, Donald and Goofy?" she asked.

"I don't know them." The woman said, shaking her head. "Excuse me." She took off, looking a little in shock.

Leahna watched as she left, moving slowly out towards the wreckage on the beach. A African-American man suddenly approached her as he called out a name she didn't recognize.

"Have you seen my son, Walt?" he asked in desperation. "He's ten years old, looks like me, he had a gameboy with him?"

"No, sorry." She said. "Have you seen my friends, Scott, Donald and Goofy? Scott looks like…"

"No, sorry. WALT!" he called out, and left her behind to look for her son. "WALT!"

"Leahna! Donald! Goofy!" Scott called out as he ran through the wreckage, coming across a man with long dark blondish hair leaning over in the sand, obviously in a state of shock.

"Here man, let me help you." Scott offered, taking the man by the arm to help him up. The man grunted and pushed him away with his arm. "Get off me, boy!" he growled at him in a thick Southern U.S. accent.

"Where are you going? You're still in shock!" Scott called after him as he started staggering off.

"None of your damn business!" the man rudely replied, starting to look through suitcases that were strewn all over the place.

"Are you okay?" said a young voice, and Scott looked down to see a small ten-year old boy looking up at him, suddenly appearing out of nowhere.

"Yeah thanks, I'm okay." Scott smiled. "Have you seen my friends, Leahna, Donald and Goofy?"

"What do they look like?" the boy had to shout above the hum of the nearby broken turbine engine.

"Leahna is a teenage girl, brown hair, kinda greenish eyes, wearing a hoodie and jeans… Donald is… uh… a guy shorter than me wearing a blue hat and clothes… Goofy is a guy taller than me wearing a yellow hat and yellow and green clothes." Scott finished, leaving out the part where Donald and Goofy looked like animals.

"I didn't see the lady." The boy shook his head. "But I saw the funny-looking clowns, I was following them up the beach this way. C'mon!" he said excitedly, leading the way for Scott to follow.

"Have you seen them?" Leahna asked about Scott, Donald and Goofy to a man with thick black curly hair in a singlet.

"No, I'm sorry." the man replied in a Middle Eastern accent, who ran off towards the sound of some girl screaming. Leahna decided to keep looking, coming across a woman with black hair who was speaking in another language to her, as she waved her hand to get her attention. Leahna couldn't understand a word of what she was saying, but she was pointing in the direction of someone lying down in the sand.

"Oh my god," Leahna said as she saw what the woman was pointing at, and ran off in that direction.

"Wait!" Scott called after the boy as he tried to keep up with him in the chaos and confusion of the crash site, which stretched up the beach. He stopped to look for him, having lost sight of him.

"You! C'mon! Come over here!" Scott looked and saw a man in a suit waving at him, gesturing him to come over. "Give me a hand!" Scott looked down and saw a man crying in distress over part of the airplane landing gear that had crushed his leg. Scott ran over with a bald man wearing white that had been standing in front of him and grabbed a part of the landing gear along with them to help lift it up.

"On the count of three!" the man in the suit shouted, as he counted down to the moment where everyone would lift up the landing gear. "One! Two! THREE!" Scott lifted with the bald man next to him as the man in the suit pulled out the man who was crushed by the landing gear. He dropped it as the man tended to his wound, wrapping his tie around the man's injury.

"HELP!" screamed someone, and Scott and the man in the suit looked up at the same time to see a blonde girl some distance away, who was obviously pregnant and leaning over painfully in the sand. "Okay, get him out of here, get him away from the engine!" the man in the suit pointed to the bald man and another man that had been helping them, then ran off in the direction of the pregnant girl. Scott followed after him.

"Help me, please help me!" the girl screamed. The man in the suit leaned down in the sand in front of her as Scott stopped, looking across to see someone else had joined them.

"Larnie!"

"Scott!"

"I'm having contractions!" the blonde girl cried in distress, and both keybladers knew there was no time for happy reunions. They both kneeled down in the sand next to the man in the suit to help the pregnant girl.

"How many months pregnant are you?" the man in the suit asked.

"Only eight months pregnant." The girl stuttered.

"How far apart are they?" the man asked, looking over at an unconscious woman that was being looked after by a young man.

"I-I don't know, a few just happened." The girl said uncertainly again.

Suddenly there was an explosion behind them, and the man fell on top of the girl to shield her from the heat and metal shards thrown from the force of it. Scott and Leahna were knocked over and grabbed each other as they fell into the sand, using their arms to shield each other as metal flew over their bodies.

"Listen to me. Look at me!" the suited man spoke moments after the explosion ended to the blonde girl. "You're going to be okay. You understand me? But you have to sit absolutely still."

Scott and Leahna got up and brushed themselves off as the man looked distractingly over at the woman who was unconscious, the young man trying to revive her now trying to perform CPR. "You two, and hey you!" he called to Scott and Leahna, and then a young man wondering around in shock behind them. "Get this woman away from the fumes. Take her over there." He pointed to a place near the plane wreckage. "Take her there. If her contractions occur closer than three minutes, call out for me!"

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me." The young man said.

"We can do it." Leahna said.

"I'll be right back." The man in the suit said to everyone.

"Don't you worry, everything's gonna be okay." Scott reassured as he helped Leahna pick up the blonde pregnant woman.

"Thank you." The blonde woman said to everyone.

"Hey! What's your name?" the young man shouted after the man in the suit.

"Jack!" the man said, and ran towards the unconscious woman and the young man looking after her.

"Let's get here over there." Scott said to Leahna as they both shouldered the pregnant woman.

"When was your last contraction?" Leahna asked calmly to the pregnant woman.

"I, I don't know, just a few minutes ago when you found me." She replied.

"What do we do if she starts giving birth?" the young curly haired man said.

"She's not going to go into labour, she's only eight months pregnant." Scott corrected him.

"She could still go into early labour." Leahna reminded Scott. "Or have a miscarriage."

"That's not going to happen. The key is to stay calm and count your contractions." Scott advised.

There was a groaning above them, and Scott looked up to see the wing of the plane was hanging over them, wavering in the wind precariously.

"It's going to fall! We have to move her." Leahna said to Scott.

"Wait, I can save us. I'll just throw my Keyblade and…" Scott started to say.

"Scott, no!" Leahna told him, grabbing the wrist of his arm that was about to summon his Keyblade. "We can't let them know yet! And plus the wing might fall and hurt someone!"

"MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!" Jack was yelling as he was running back towards them. "Get her up! Get her out of there!"

The young guy talking to Claire looked up and saw the dangerous way the wing was moving above them, and picked her up with the man in the suit. Scott and Leahna followed them as they ran away from the wing as it groaned for the last time and broke off the plane, coming crashing down on top of the plane wreckage they had just been next to. There was a huge explosion, and all five of them were thrown forwards again from the blast into the sand as the heat washed over their heads.

"You okay?" the man in the suit gasped as he looked at the pregnant woman.

"Yeah." The blonde nodded, out of breath.

"Scott, are you alright?" Leahna asked as she pulled her head out from the sand, looking at the young man next to her catching his breath.

"I'm alright, thanks." Scott mollified her.

"You?" Jack called over to the young man, who was holding his side and taking deep breaths, his face covered in sand. He simply nodded.

"You all stay with her, okay?" Jack asked them.

"Dude, I'm not going anywhere." The young man replied, not bothering to wipe any of the sand that had masked his face off.

Jack got up and moved away, out of sight. The flames from the explosion died down, and the shock of the plane crash among the survivors seemed to vanish along with it.

"There you are!" quacked a voice, and Donald came into view, followed by Goofy.

"Donald, Goofy, you're okay." Scott said in relief.

"Yup! As much as you can be from a plane crash!" Goofy nodded.

"Hi." The pregnant girl said to Donald and Goofy as they entered. "I don't know all your names. I feel bad because you all helped me." she started to smile.

"I'm Scott."

"Leahna. You can call me Larnie."

"Donald."

"Goofy."

"My name is Claire." The pregnant woman introduced herself.

"I'm Hurley." The young man said.

"So you guys know each other from the plane?" Claire asked.

"Well actually, we weren't on the p-" Goofy started to say, before Donald poked him, and Goofy covered his mouth with his hands.

"What did you say?" the young curly-haired man who had been helping the pregnant girl asked strangely.

"Er, what I meant was, we didn't know each other from the plane." Goofy corrected.

"Yeah, we met each other from before." Scott covered for him, telling a half-truth.

"Scott, Donald, Goofy, can I talk to you for a moment?" Leahna asked, and they moved away from the other passengers.

"What are you doing?" Leahna asked them all as they formed a huddle. "We shouldn't lie to them."

"But if they know that we're not from this world, then we'd be muddling…" Goofy reminded.

"It's meddling!" Donald corrected him annoyingly.

"Uh, right." Goofy chortled. "We have to protect the world borders."

"World order!" Donald corrected again, sighing annoyingly.

"So if we can't tell them about the Gummi ship, how are we supposed to find it?" Scott asked.

"We have to look for it for ourselves." Donald said. "It's the only way."

"What about if the Heartless appear?" Leahna suggested. "We can't deny the truth about them."

"We haven't seen any Heartless yet." Goofy said. "Maybe we'll get lucky and they haven't come to this world. We'll deal with them if they do."

"The sun is setting." Scott said. "Let's start looking for the Gummi ship tomorrow."

Night fell, and the group stayed with Claire and Hurley, until they left to spend some time to themselves. Later on they were sitting around a campfire with Jack, the doctor they had met before, and the young woman with wavy brown hair and brown eyes in white shirt and khaki pants that Larnie had first met after the crash.

"We must have been at about 40,000 feet when it happened." Jack was saying, as he held up a palm leaf that had been cut to look like their passenger airplane. "We hit an air pocket, dropped, maybe 200 feet, the turbulence was…" he trailed off, shaking his head. "I blacked out."

"I didn't." the woman said. "I saw the whole thing. I knew the tail was gone, but I couldn't bring myself to look back. And then the front of the plane broke off."

"Well, it's not here on the beach. And neither is the tail." Jack said. "We just need to figure out which way we came in."

"Why?" the woman asked.

"Because there's a chance we could find the cockpit." Jack explained. "If it's intact, we'll be able to find the transceiver, send out a signal, help the rescue party find us."

"How do you know all that?" the woman asked.

"I took a couple flying lessons." Jack told her, throwing the leaf plane into the fire. "Wasn't for me."

'I saw some smoke." the woman said suddenly. "Just through the valley. If you're thinking about going for the cockpit, I'm going with you."

"We're coming too." Scott spoke up.

"I don't even know your name." Jack said, looking first at the woman.

"My name's Kate." the wavy brown-haired woman said.

"I'm Jack." Jack said, and smiled at Kate. Then he looked at the rest of the group. "I don't know your names, either."

"Scott." Scott began, as they all introduced themselves.

"Larnie."

"Donald."

"Goofy."

"HAAARRRROOOOOOOOOO!"

Out of nowhere came a massive roar. The group looked up and heard it again, this time coming from the jungle. Jack and Kate got up to look, and Scott, Leahna, Donald and Goofy went after them. Some of the other survivors heard it too, and spoke up in alarm as they moved towards the tree line for a closer look. There were the sounds of undergrowth moving around, some mechanical sounds, and other noises they had never heard of before. Trees were being knocked down, and another loud bellow came from the dark depths of the jungle. This repeated itself until the sound grew fainter into the jungle, the source of the noise moving away back into the jungle.

"Terrific." said a young man in a hoodie, clearly being cynical, as everyone else looked on in bewilderment at what they had just witnessed.

Leahna woke up to the sound of crashing waves, and the light morning breeze tugging softly at her hair. She noticed she had a blanket over her body that hadn't been there when she fell asleep the night before and got up. It was morning, and she looked around her to see Donald and Goofy sleeping soundly around the campfire.

However, the place near her where Scott had fallen asleep was empty.

She looked around curiously, and noticed Scott was sitting down on the beach a few meters away from the campfire, with his back to her. She wrapped the blanket around her shoulders and stepped down the beach towards him.

Scott sensed her presence and looked over his shoulder up at her. "Morning, Sleeping sleepy-head." He said to her, and looked back out towards the sea.

"Sleepy-head?" Leahna questioned the nickname skeptically.

"Yeah, that's what this Southener man called you that walked by this morning." Scott explained. "I like it, I think it suits you."

"Shut up." Leahna said humorously, sitting down next to him. "You like to sleep in, too. So why are you up so early?"

"Cause the cold woke me up… so I thought maybe if I stared out at the ocean long enough, the Gummi ship would come back on its own and fly us off this island." Scott joked.

Larnie smirked a little. "Yeah… we'll find the Gummi ship. Did Jack say when we're leaving?"

"I was gonna wake you and the others up, we're leaving soon." Scott informed, still staring thoughtfully out into the waves as they crashed on shore. "This beach… it reminds me of our beach… back home."

"Yeah. I miss home, I miss my family and friends." Larnie was silent for a moment, thinking about something. "You said you woke up cause of the cold. Didn't you have a blanket last night, the one that was ripped in the corner…?"

Scott didn't answer, his smile faded, and he got up. "I'm going to wake up Donald and Goofy. Be ready in about ten minutes." He told her, then walked away, leaving Leahna to her thoughts. She looked down at the blanket around her in afterthought; noticing silently to herself that one of the corners had been torn off. 

Leahna's flashback

It was back on their island when it happened, about a year ago. Leahna remembered saying goodbye to her friends in front of her house on a sunny orange afternoon, when a young man came out of the new house that had been built next door to hers. He wore a black and white shirt with jeans and black belt and shoes that matched. He looked older and taller than her, and had brown, windswept hair and deep chocolate brown eyes. Those eyes looked towards her and she felt them on her; she stared back and the man did not look away, but instead stared at her for a moment, calm and resolute, until she looked away.

"Hi." The man spoke up finally, making her look back as he crossed over to stand in front of her. "I was going to say, I didn't know I had moved next door to a celebrity."

"What?" Leahna said to the young man, confused.

"You look like an actress I know of." The young man said, with a secretive, amused smile on his face.

Intrigued by this new handsome stranger, Larnie laughed a little. "I'm not a celebrity." She told him.

"That's why I said, 'I was going to say', but now I know better. You're too down-to-earth to be a celebrity."

"Thanks." Leahna giggled.

The man noticed the giggle, and smirked, slight dimples showing on his freshly shaven face. "You know what? I think you're into me already." He said amusingly.

"What!?" Leahna half-laughed, half-gasped, surprised the man was so cocky but funny at the same time; she wasn't sure if he was serious.

"Yeah, I knew it; you're into me. You like me." The young man grinned an all-knowing grin.

"No I'm not." Leahna denied playfully, thinking the man knew there was some truth behind her words. "I don't even know your name."

"Scott." The young man said, grinning.

"I'm Leahna. But you can call me Larnie." Leahna smiled up at him.

Back on the island, all ready to go on the hike, Larnie walked up to the circle of survivors that had gathered with Donald, Goofy, and Scott. She looked at Scott in afterthought; Scott did not seem to notice she was looking, and if he did, seemingly ignored her as he listened in on the group discussion. Hurley was there along with some new faces, and Jack started talking.

"…We're going to go out and look for the cockpit, see if we can find a transceiver to send a distress signal to help the rescue team."

"I'll come with you. I want to help." Came the voice of another young man, with blonde hair and an British accent.

"I don't need any more help" Jack said to him.

"No, it's cool, I don't really feel like standing still, so…" the young man insisted, trailing off when Jack nodded in approval. "Excellent." The young man replied in acknowledgement. He looked at the rest of the group as they moved off. "My name's Charlie, by the way. Do any of you lot recognize me from anywhere?" he asked cryptically, looking at Leahna, Scott, Donald and Goofy as Jack and Kate lead the way. "Can't quite place it? I'm in a band called Driveshaft. Ever heard of the song 'You Are Everybody'?" His voice faded with them into the distance as they moved off up the grassy hill into the treeline.

A while later, the group had moved into the jungle in the valley; it had started to rain. Eventually they found the cockpit, and Charlie spoke up.

'Let's get this trans..."

"Transceiver." Jack finished for him.

"…Transceiver thing and get out, then." Charlie summarized.

One by one, they moved single file into the cockpit, as it was resting on a slope which meant they had to climb up the seats. Scott went first before Leahna, giving her a hand to help her up, and Larnie accepted it and took a deep breath, tensing up as she moved up into the unknown.

Leahna was back home on the beach, one year ago, doing her homework. Her phone was next to her as she wrote her work brief. Suddenly it went off, and Leahna paused to answer it; it was a text message from her new friend, Scott. In the past few months early in the year, since they had made friends when Scott had moved into the neighbourhood and into her life, they had been constantly seeing and messaging each other. Everything in their relationship had exciting and new, and even though they had been busy, they made the time to keep in touch with one another because of how much fun they were having in each other's company. Leahna looked at the message, which read:

Hey, good morning!

How are you today? Not still asleep I hope. I finished that game I told you I was playing last night, and now I'm playing the one you started last night! It's awesome! What part are you up to? It's nice if you're still up to the same level you were on last night, but I've probably passed it by now. Haha.

Talk soon.

Leahna sighed; this had been one of many texts Scott had sent her, and now she was getting a little tired of it all. Sure she had started it, but she had used up a lot of money just texting him, money she needed for other things. Even though he was a friend, Scott was available every day she went online and he was always nice to her, giving her compliments, and generally acting like a nice guy. Those things were okay, and she didn't know what it was, but… Scott didn't have that sort of thing he first had when she first met him. All this messaging her every day had become predictable and boring; it was way too much. She had homework to do, and she didn't have time for Scott right now.

She picked up her phone and politely, but quickly, messaged back:

Hey,

I'm good, I'm doing homework. Look, it's been fun messaging each other these last few days, but I think we should stop now, because it's costing me too much money. I won't be able to answer you anymore.

Bye.

She went back to doing her homework. A few minutes later, her mobile rang out again. She got another message from Scott, and sighed. She had homework to do, didn't Scott understand that? She was not going to answer it this time, but read it quickly:

Hey,

Yeah okay I understand. I don't expect you to answer this, but try to be online tonight. I have something important to tell you.

Good luck with your homework. Night.

He almost sounded disappointed, but Leahna read it over quickly again before absorbing it. He had something important to tell her? What was it?

She looked out of her window, down at the beach where the sun was setting on the horizon in thought, before she went back to work.

"So, what does a transceiver look like?" Kate said, snapping Leahna out of her flashback as they entered the cockpit.

"Complicated walkie-talkie." Jack answered, grabbing Scott's hand to give him a boost up next to him. Scott pulled Leahna up in the space across from him as Kate climbed across the still body of the pilot to look for the transceiver. Suddenly the pilot woke up, taking a breath and making Kate gasp in surprise.

"Hey, can you hear me?" Jack said to the pilot, then to Kate, "I need that water." Kate gave him her bottle of water, and Jack took off the cap, giving it to the pilot. "Here you go, take it." 

Scott looked away and kept looking for the transceiver. Leahna helped Goofy into the cockpit; Charlie and Donald were still behind them.

The pilot took a sip, and coughed some of it up, becoming aware of his surroundings. "How many survived?" he questioned.

"At least 48." Jack answered. "Does anything feel broken?"

"No. My head's a little dizzy, that's all."

"It's probably a concussion." Jack told him, noticing the pilot's head wound.

Leahna searched for the transceiver; there was a lot of little compartments, covered in wreckage and jungle plants that had fallen in through the broken windshield. Scott was looking on his side of the floor; Kate was still listening in on the conversation between Jack and the pilot.

"How long has it been?" the pilot asked.

"16 hours." Jack said grimly.

"16 hours? Has anybody come?"

"Not yet."

"6 hours in. Our radio went out, no one could see us." The pilot began to explain.  
"We turned back to land in Fiji, by the time we hit turbulence we were 1000 miles off course. They're looking for us in the wrong place."

After a moment of everyone silently taking that in, Jack said, "Do you have a transceiver?"

The pilot began to move towards the co-pilot's seat.

"Good, that's what we were hoping. Look, you shouldn't try to move." Jack advised.

"No, no. I'm okay. It's okay. Transceiver's right there. It's right there." The pilot pointed. Kate picked up a black device, similar to how Jack had described it, and handed it to the pilot.

"Where's Charlie?" Jack said to Kate. "And Donald?" he said, this time looking at Leahna,

Leahna looked at Kate, who looked back at her with a surprised look. They both together moved out of the cockpit back the way they came, leaving the boys behind them.

"Where do you think they went?" Leahna asked Kate.

"I don't know…" Kate said, sounding a little shaken. Leahna realized she was probably still shocked about the news from the pilot.

"Hey, over here!" came Donald's voice. Kate and Leahna saw Donald, looking at a bathroom stall.

"Charlie went in there and won't come out!" Donald quacked.

"Charlie?" Kate called.

The bathroom door flew open, and Charlie came out.

"What were you doing in the bathroom?" Kate asked curiously.

"What? Charlie said defensively.

Suddenly the plane shook around them, and the sounds of 'the monster' they had heard from before were heard all around them. Everyone reacted to the noise, and Leahna heard Scott call her name.

"Kate." Jack called for her.

The girls clambered quickly into the cockpit, Donald and Charlie helping them up. Because of the limited space in the cockpit, Kate had to move up into Jack's lap, Goofy squeezed in next to the pilot, and Leahna felt Scott pull her into his embrace protectively, but also to prevent her from falling onto Donald and Charlie, who were nervously scrambling into the cockpit. 

"It's right outside." Kate said fearfully. Leahna could feel her fear, and tried not to be afraid herself, but she could sense something was outside of the cockpit.

" What, what's right outside?" the pilot raised his voice.

"Shhhh." Jack quieted him.

Everyone was deadly silent. A shadow moved past the window, but the rain had fogged up the window, making it hard to see what it was. Jack moved when Kate did, and tried to see what was outside the window. Leahna, feeling a little braver, remembered her role as a Keyblade master and pulled away from Scott to take a look as well. Scott followed after her. The pilot moved past them, going up to try to see it as he poked his head up out through the broken windshield, then stood up part way to take a better look. As Charlie was the last one to get into the cockpit, suddenly the cockpit shook again, and the pilot was violently snatched out of the window, and then reappeared as he was smashed up against the window, before the sound of the monster echoed from around them once more.

"What the hell just happened!?" Charlie yelled frightenedly.

There was big crashing and shaking around them. Jack reached for the transceiver which the pilot put down in the co-pilot's seat, just it before it fell. Then the cockpit fell to the ground from its inclined position, putting Leahna on further on edge.

"Jack, c'mon." Kate yelped, afraid.

" Just leave it!" Charlie told him.

"Run!" Scott shouted, and Leahna felt him push her towards the door. They ran, back the way they came, monster sounds coming from all around them. They ran out of the cockpit into the depths of the jungle in the pouring rain, and Jack, Kate, Charlie, Donald and Goofy all overtook her. She stopped, aware that Scott was not behind her anymore, and he had disappeared. Suddenly, she was torn, between following the others that moment so she wouldn't loose sight of them, or going back towards the cockpit and the monster chasing after them so she wouldn't leave Scott behind. In a split second, she made her decision, and now alone she summoned her keyblade to her side, and doubled back the way she came.

"Scott!" she called into the night, feeling cold and frightened, with only the light of her keyblade to light the way. She felt scared. This monster, or this Heartless, whatever it was, was unlike anything she had experienced before; she had fought countless giants and other creatures, but she had always been able to see them and figure out their weaknesses not like this monster she had never seen before and felt could lunge out of the darkness and end her life at any moment. But she was more afraid the monster had gotten Scott more than anything else, it was perhaps his safety that was the only thing that made her take each step though the darkness.

"Scott!" she yelled, wishing she could find him so she could get back to the others and get out of this living nightmare. "SCOTT!!!"

Leahna was back in her house, in her room, getting ready for one of her best friend's birthday party. She had picked out her outfit for the day and felt excited about the movie she was going to see with them; it was a pirate movie that had just come out at the cinemas that weekend, and she liked pirates, so had been waiting to see the movie for a long time.

Suddenly there was a knock on her window; her curtains were drawn since she had been changing clothes, so she dismissed it as nothing and went back to getting ready. The knock came again, then a third time, so she quickly went to open her curtains to see what was making the noise.

"Hey, there you are!' came a voice, and she saw it was Scott, who had climbed up to the terrace to her window. "Hey, you're wearing that pirate outfit, cool." 

"Scott, what are you doing here!?" Leahna scolded him.

"Isn't it obvious? The pirate outfit you're wearing, you're going to see that new pirate movie, aren't you? So you can come with me?" Scott smiled with hopeful enthusiasm.

Leahna sighed. "I'm going with my best friend, it's her birthday. My mum said no, we can't go together."

The smile faded from Scott's face. "What?" he said in surprise. "But, didn't you tell her…?"

"She says we're practically banned from seeing each other." Leahna said dismissively. "You can't stay around here. You have to go."

"But… wait, let me talk to her, please." Scott suggested. "I could convince her, then we can all go…"

"She won't talk to you." Leahna shook her head. "It won't work that way, it's complicated."

"But what about our trip? The trip you invited me on? You wanted me to come with you when we first met… you still do, don't you?" Scott asked.

Larnie was silent. Then she said quietly, "You should go."

"I…" Scott was at a loss of words, not wanting to leave. "…I'm sorry this had to happen."

Larnie looked away. "…I'm sorry too."

Scott was silent, and then said, "This is about the important thing I told you, isn't it? Isn't it?" he demanded of her.

Larnie couldn't face him, couldn't look him in the eye, and unsure of how to feel she remained stoic. "I have to go. Bye." She said, and closed the window.

Scott's face matched hers, looking unexpessionless and a little angered. She watched as he dropped off her roof and walked away back to his house, then grabbed her things and left her room. 

"Scott!" Leahna continued to call. "Scott…" her voice died a little, as she was beginning to feel like she was loosing hope. She felt afraid, cold and lonely, but most of all like she had let Scott down. The monster probably had him, and after she heard another roar from the monster nearby, she was sure it would soon find her too…

"Larnie!" she suddenly heard Scott's voice call to her from up ahead.

She stepped towards the sound and into a clearing, where the cockpit was, and Scott had his back facing her. He had his keyblade in his hand, and right in front of him, the sounds of the monster came from the tree line.

"Larnie. Go back. Get out of here." Scott warned her.

"Not without you!" she yelled at him exasperatingly. "What are you doing back here!?"

"I said go! Get out of here! Run!" Scott backed away from the trees towards her, pushing her in front of him once again, as the monster suddenly roared and knocked over trees right behind them, closely on their heels…

L O S T 

(Writer's note: There you have it folks, another Kingdom Hearts chapter! This time instead of doing a Tarzan chapter, I thought I'd write a more favorite jungle TV show of mine instead. And yeah, Lost isn't Disney, but I don't care cause it's my story. I hope you all liked it though! Please review it, the next chapter of the Lost story will be coming as soon as I find the time to write it all up, like I did this one!)


End file.
